The Scottish historical review

I

I] ,vr,

hi :•:••:, 11

I II . •'-!>•

THE SCOTTISH
HISTORICAL REVIEW

PUBLISHED BY

JAMES MACLEHOSE AND SONS, GLASGOW,
to ttit Snibtmtp.

MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD., LONDON.

New York, • • The Macmillan Co.

Toronto, - - • The Macmillan Co. of Canada.

London, • • • Simpkin, Hamilton and Co.

Cambridge, • • Bowes and Bowes.

Edinburgh, • • Dougfas and Fouiit.

Sydney, • • - Angus and Robertson.

MCMXI.

Ill

SCOTTISH

REVIEW

GLASGOW
JAMES MACLEHOSE AND SONS

PUBLISHERS TO THE UNIVERSITY
11 I

750

Contents

The Author of * Lancelot of the Laik.' By Prof. Walter

W. Skeat - i

The First Historian of Cumberland. By Rev. James

Wilson 5

The Chronicle of Lanercost. By the Right Hon. Sir

Herbert Maxwell, Bart. 22, 159, 276, 377

The History of Divorce in Scotland. By Lord Guthrie 39

Letters from Francis Kennedy, Abbeyhill, to Baron
Kennedy at Dalquharran, Mayboll. The Siege of
Edinburgh, 1745 - 53

Roderick Dhu : his Poetical Pedigree. By Geo. Neilson - 61

Edinburgh in 1544 and Hertford's Invasion. By Sir J.

Balfour Paul - 113

Jacobite Songs : The True Loyalist or Chevalier's

Favourite, 1779. With notes by Andrew Lang - 132

Two Glasgow Merchants in the French Revolution. By

Henry W. Meikle - - 149

Charter of the Abbot and Convent of Cupar, 1220. By
Rev. James Wilson. With note by Sir Archibald
Campbell Lawrie - 172

vi Contents

PACB

A Roman Outpost on Tweedside : The Fort of New-
stead. By Joseph Anderson. With seven Illustrations 178

The Beginnings of St. Andrews University, 1410-1418.

By J. Maitland Anderson - - 225, 333

The Dispensation for the Marriage of John, Lord of the
Isles, and Amie Mac Ruari, 1337. With note by
J. Maitland Thomson - - 249

Jacobite Songs. By C. H. Firth - 251

The Scottish Islands in the Diocese of Sodor. By
Reginald L. Poole. With notes by J. Maitland
Thomson, Sir Archibald C. Lawrie, and the Rev.
Thomas M. Lindsay, D.D. - - 258

Scottish Burgh Records. By George Neilson - 264

Two Ballads on Viscount Dundee. By C. H. Firth - 361

The English Thanksgiving Service for King James'

delivery from the Cowrie Conspiracy. By F. C. Eeles 366

Spanish Reports and the Wreck at Tobermory. By

Julian Corbett - - 400

Reviews of Books 70, 189, 286, 405

Communications and Replies —

Francis Joseph Amours - - - .- -101

The Saracen Mercenaries of Richard I. By Professor F. M.

Powicke - ._.___ 104

The Pills of Pope Alexander - 106

Further Essays on Border Ballads. By Andrew Lang - 108
Saint Maelrubha. By Niall D. Campbell - - 109

Contents vii

PAGE

Communications and Replies —

Dr. James Fea 'of Clestrain.' By Allan Fea - no

Further Essays on Border Ballads. By Colonel Fitzwilliam

Elliot. With note by Andrew Lang - 220

Early Charter at Inveraray. By Niall D. Campbell - 222

Letters Relative to the Siege of Edinburgh - - 223

The Coronation Stone of Scotland - 223

Vidas Achinlek, Chevalier. By Muriel Gray. With notes
by Professor Walter W. Skeat, Professor Alexander

Lawson, and J. T. T. Brown - 321

Coupar and Citeaux. By J. Maitland Thomson - - 326

Late Fifteenth Century Bell at Swinton, Berwickshire. By

F. C. Eeles. With two Illustrations - 327

The True Loyalist or Chevalier's Favourite. By A. Lang 328

Some Abbots of Newbattle. By J. G. Wallace James - 329

Earthquakes in Glasgow. By David Murray - 329

The Court of Love. By Professor W. W. Skeat - - 438

Robert de Prebenda, Bishop of Dunblane. By William Brown 439

Jenny Cameron. By A. Francis Steuart - 439

The Finn Men. By David MacRitchie - - 442

Notes and Comments —

Bibliography of Scottish History - - -in

The Church of Southdean - - III

Newcastle Society of Antiquaries - in

Index, - 445

Illustrations

PAGE

Roman Shoes found at Newstead - 178

Plan of Early Fort, Newstead - 181

Plan of the Principia, Newstead - 182

Roman Vessels of Unglazed Ware - - 182

Plan of the reduced Fort, Newstead - 184

Bowl of Terra Sigillata - 184

Terra Cotta Horse found at Newstead - 186

Bell at Swinton Church, Berwickshire - 326

The Roman Wall in Scotland. Coins relating to Britain (Pius,

Commodus, and Severus) - - 404

The Roman Wall in Scotland. Legionary Tablets - 406

Contributors to this Volume

Joseph Anderson

J. Maitland Anderson

C. T. Atkinson

Rev. E. M. Blackie

Prof. G. Baldwin Brown

J. T. T. Brown

Niall D. Campbell

James L. Caw

Rev. Prof. Cooper

Julian Corbett

G. G. Coulton

A. R. Cowan

A. Cunningham

John Edwards

F. C. Eeles

Col. Fitzwilliam Elliot

Allan Fea

C. H. Firth

Gilbert Goudie

Muriel Gray

Mrs. J. R. Green

Lord Guthrie

T. F. Henderson
Rev. J. King Hewison
J. G. Wallace-James
Hilda Johnstone
Thomas Johnston
Theodora Keith
William D. Ker
Professor W. P. Ker
Lord Kingsburgh
Andrew Lang
Sir A. C. Lawrie
Prof. A. Lawson
Prof. T. M. Lindsay
Mary Love
George Macdonald
W. S. McKechnie
W. M. Mackenzie
James MacLehose
Sophia H. MacLehose
David MacRitchie
Andrew Marshall
Sir Herbert Maxwell, Bart,

Xll

Contributors

Henry W. Meikle Thomas Ross

W. G. Scott Moncrieff W. R. Scott

Prof. J. L. Morison Prof. Walter W. Skeat

R. B. Mowat David Baird Smith

W. G. Blaikie Murdoch D. Nichol Smith

David Murray E. Stair-Kerr

George Neilson A. Francis Steuart

Sir J. Balfour Paul G. H. Stevenson

Reginald L. Poole J. Maitland Thomson

Prof. F. M. Powicke Prof. T. F. Tout

Robert Renwick Rev. James Wilson

The

Scottish Historical Review

VOL. VIIL, No. 29 OCTOBER 1910

The Author of c Lancelot of the Laik '

IN 1865 I edited, for the Early English Text Society, a Scottish
Metrical Romance, entitled Lancelot of the Laik, supposed
to be written about 1490-1500. Nothing is known as to the
authorship of the poem. Recent researches enable me to suggest
that it was certainly written by the author of the Quair of Jelousy,
edited by D. Laing, in vol ii. of the Bannatyne Miscellany, printed
by the Bannatyne Club in 1836. The editor (rightly, as I think)
attributed that poem to James Auchinleck, who graduated at
Glasgow in 1471, and died in 1497. No doubt he was the
James Affleck mentioned as * a makar ' by Dunbar. I think it
probable that Lancelot, as being a much more ambitious and
longer poem, was the later of the two ; and I shall assume this
result for convenience, though it will not at all affect the
arguments. If we date the ^uair about 1490 and the Lancelot
about 1495, these are mere guesses ; but they are in accord-
ance with probability. It must be remembered that of the
latter poem we possess a mere fragment of 3486 lines. If
it was ever completed, it must have consisted of more than
10,000 lines at least, quite enough to justify Dunbar's par-
ticular reference.

I shall denote the £>uair of Jelousy by J., and Lancelot of the
Laik by L., for brevity. I find in both poems most minute
resemblances in style, prosody, vocabulary, grammar, and phon-
ology. I could exhibit these at such a length and in such minute
detail as to render their common authorship almost a matter of
certainty. But such details are tedious and wearisome ; and I

S.H.R. VOL. VIII. A

2 Professor Walter W. Skeat

think it may suffice to exhibit, side by side, some of the passages
in which the poems resemble one another. I will, however, give
one of the grammatical details by way of specimen.

In the Kingis £>uair we find the pp. of the verb * to take '
in the monosyllabic form tak or take^ or in the dissyllabic form
takin (st. 24) ; and in no other form. But in J. and L. the
infinitive is both tak and ta. Tak occurs in rime; J. 154, L. 473.
Ta occurs in rime, J. 73 ; in L. we can infer it from tats, ' takes,'
riming with gais, 'goes, fats, 'foes'; 1095, 1141, 3005. But
the pp. is not only tak (in rime), J. 452, L. 296 ; it is also tane or
tone, J. 575, L. 1054, 1060, etc. The riming of words ending
in -on (from A.S. -an) with the French dispone (J. 266, L. 154) is
noticeable. As to word-forms, I will merely cite destitude (in
rime), J. 523, L. 96, 193 ; used instead of destitute.

Both poems afford rather frequent reminiscences of Chaucer.
Note, for example, Chaucer's line in the Knightes Tale, A 1500: —
* And, for to doon his observaunce to May.'

The thirteenth line of the £>uair is : —

* And unto Maij to done their observaunce.'
The author of L. has not forgotten it ; see lines 12-16 : —

— * to schew the kalendis of May, . . .
The old wsage of lowis [love's] obseruans/

But, of course, the fact that both poems copy Chaucer is ot
no great significance. The only curious circumstance here is that
both poems make a similar reference just at the very same point,
at the same distance from the beginning.

I here notice the fact which gave one the first hint, viz. the
extraordinary prolixity in the style. J. begins with a portentous
sentence thirty-two lines in length. L. begins with a succession
of long sentences, of which the first extends to sixteen lines at
least, followed by And and ten lines more. Clause follows clause,
quite loosely joined together, as though the object were to avoid
coming to a full stop. This should be particularly observed, as
well as the monotonously excessive use, in both poems, of a
caesura at the end of the fourth syllable.

J. begins with an Introduction, in ten-syllable couplets, of 190
lines. L., which is mainly a translation from the French, begins
with a general introduction of 195 lines, with a more particular
introduction having reference to the subject. It is here that we
should look for the parallel passages; and they are not difficult
to find. I now quote them, keeping to the order in J.

The Author of c Lancelot of the Laik ' 3

1. The felde oureclad hath with the tender grene,

Quhich all depaynt with diverss hewis bene ; J. 3, 4.

Of quhiche the feild was al depaynt with gren; L. 46.

2. His courss, ascending in the orient

From his first gree, and forth his bemis sent; J. 9. 10.

His hot[e] courss in-to the orient,

And from his spere his goldine stremis sent ; L. 5, 6.

3. Tho was the ayer sobir and amene ; J. 18.

— in the lusty aire,
The morow makith soft, ameyne, and faire ; L. 63, 64.

4. And namely on the suffraunce and the peyne

Quhich most hath do my carefull hert constreyne; J. 25, 26.

The sharp assay and ek the inwart peine

Of dowblit wo me neulyngis can constrein ; L. 35, 36.

5. The quhich as now me nedith not report ; J. 27.
Quhich to report I tak not in my cwre ; L. 266.

6. And to no wicht I will compleyne nor mene ; J. 30.
And in myself I can nocht fynde the mene

In-to quhat wyss I sal my wo compleine ; L. 41, 42.

7- — that was rycht wele besene ; J. 36. — that wess weil besen ; L. 45.

8. The cristall teris, etc. ; J. 50. As cristoll teris ; L. 62.

9. The scharp[e] deth mote perce me throuch the hert,

So that on fute from hens I nevir astert ; J. 67, 68.

And throuch and throuch persit to the hart,

That all his tyme he couth it not astart; L. 227, 228.

10. With that she sichit with a rycht pitouss chere ; J. 95.
He wepith and he sorowith in his chere . . .

Gret peite was the sorow that he maad ; L. 695, 697.

11. And to myself I thocht in this manere,

Quhat may this mene? Quhat may this signifye ? J. 120, 121.

. . . and to myself thocht I,

Quhat may this meyne ? Quhat may this signify? L. 159, 160.

12. For sche, for fairhede and for suete-having ; J. 133.
that sche In fairhed and in wertew doith excede ; L. 576, 577.

13. How evir it stonde, yit for this ladies sake

Sa mekle occupacioun schall I tak; J. 153, 154.

Som trety schall thoue for thi lady sak,

That wnkouth is, als tak on hand and mak; L. 145, 146.

Among al vtheris I schal one honde tak

This litil occupatioune for hire sak ; L. 167, 168.

14. And gif I do, it is of negligence,

And lak of connyng and of eloquence ; J. 161, 162.

Quhen that thai here my febil negligens,

That empit is, and bare of eloquens ; L. 179, 180.

4 The Author of c Lancelot of the Laik'

Observe particularly that these are not instances of copying,
but examples in which the same author, whilst using again his
old rimes, takes the opportunity of slightly varying his phrases.
This is why the similarities are so convincing.

Neither have I exhibited all the parallelisms. Further on,
in J. 245, 246, we find for to endite, riming with to write ; whilst
in L. 205, 206, for to write rimes with endite. J. 573 ends
with thou thee dispone ; so does L. 1 54. J. 549 ends with walking
to and fro ; L. 43 ends with walkith to and fro. Many more such
similarities may easily be found, and the reader may persuade
himself as to the identity of the authorship of the two poems
much more effectually than I can do it for him, by simply
examining the question for himself.

I will just mention one curiosity of rime which is found in both
poems. We find that, in the Canterbury Tales, Chaucer five times
uses the tag atte laste (at the last), as furnishing a convenient rime
to caste ; see A 2429, B 508, B 904, E 1954, G 1314 ; but in
none of these examples is the verb used with reference to the eyes
or face. But in the Quair of Jelousye we find these two examples :

— till, at the last,
Myne eye estward agayne the sonne I cast ; 33

— till, at the last,
With that hir voce and eyne to hevin sche cast; 57

Lancelot of the Laik has two similar examples :

— at the last,
Efterward1 one syd he gan his Ey to cast; 1005

— atte last ;
And in the knychtis wentail haith it cast ; 1055

Perhaps it is worth saying that there is no example of this
rime in the Kingis £>uairy which (as I believe I can prove)
exhibits the phonology of an earlier date. Anyone who wishes
to examine this question will find much assistance from the essay
by Dr. F. J. Curtis on the Rimes and Phonology of the Middle-Scotch
Romance Clariodus, reprinted at Halle in 1894 from volumes 4
and 5 of Anglia. He shows clearly the artificiality of the form

ton in the sense of ' taken.' T1tT X1tr c

WALTER W. SKEAT.

1The word * E forward ' is so written in the MS. that the 'er' is only
denoted by a little curl. Considering that the long $ ( f ) and f are constantly
confused, I suspect that the scribe should have written ' Estward,' as in the other
poem. Surely it is remarkable that this correction will mend the scansion of the
line and give a clearer sense.

The First Historian of Cumberland

rTHHE family of Denton, from which the subject of this notice
JL was sprung, is not unknown in the annals of English
exploits in the southern counties of Scotland during those
tumultuous years when Balliols and Bruces struggled for the crown
of the northern kingdom. The name is territorial, dating back,
perhaps, to the twelfth century, and was adopted from the manor
or parish of Denton in Gillesland, which remained in possession
of the family till the opening years of the sixteenth century.
Offshoots which settled at Newcastle-upon-Tyne served English
interests on the eastern border with as much success as the parent
stem in the west.

The proverb recorded by Camden that ' opportunity makes the
theef ' has a wider range : it brings out the mettle in a man or
a family, and nowhere is it seen better exemplified than in the
political unsettlement of Scotland, when individual families
achieved undying fame. The international estrangement gave
scope for special service on both sides of the Border, and the
Dentons of Denton, like many of their contemporaries, rapidly
rose to places of honour and influence in their country's story.
The feudal service due from the tenement of Denton in the four-
teenth century appears to have been one knight, for in 1304 John
of Denton was summoned to render that quota for a foray into
Scotland.1 A few years later the same person was commissioned
with others by King Edward, while he was sojourning at Laner-
cost, to raise 140 men in Eskdale and Gillesland for the pursuit
of Robert Bruce and his accomplices,2 and in 1335 a representative
of the family in Newcastle had the privilege of keeping the Earl
of Moray at Bamburgh and delivering him to the sheriff at York.3

In course of time branches of the family were distributed in
several places in Cumberland, often serving as sheriffs of the county,
knights of the shire, and burgesses of the city of Carlisle in many

, Cal. Scot. Doc. ii. 1437. 2 Cal. of Pat. #o//.r (1301-1307), p. 498.
3 Bain, op. cit. iii. 1173.
5

6 Rev. James Wilson

Parliaments. Sir Richard of Denton, one of the most conspicuous
men in Cumberland of his time, assisted at the arrest and execu-
tion of Andrew de Hartcla, the unfortunate Earl of Carlisle, in
1323, for his supposed treacherous dealings with Bruce.1 But
the most distinguished military personage of this lineage was a
direct ancestor and namesake of the subject of this notice who won
renown in Scotland. It may be permissible to allow John Denton,
the father of Cumbrian history, to recount his deeds of prowess.

It may be stated summarily that, according to his descendant,2
John of Denton had a grant of * the forest of Garnerie and Kirk-
patrick and Agingrey in Scotland ' from Edward Balliol, King
of Scots. His letters patent thereof were sealed in the Isle of
Eastholm.3 He was also steward of Annandale under Humfrey
de Bohun, Earl of Hereford, to whom the whole seigniory, which
was anciently the Bruces' lands, was given by Edward Balliol or
John Balliol his father. Denton deserved so well in these wars
between Balliols and Bruces, competitors for the crown of Scot-
land, that Balliol, then king, preferred him to that forest, late the
lands of the Bishops of Glasgow, and to Kirkpatrick, late the
lands of Sir James Frissold, adherents to the Bruces' faction.
The Earl of Hereford gave him the stewardship of Annandale,4
the principal office in that seigniory, because he had first entered
the same and held it for the Earl in spite of the Bruces. When
Balliol was banished from Scotland, Denton still held the principal
house of the seigniory till it was fired under him, beaten and
undermined till it was ready to fall, whereupon his heirs, in
remembrance of this exploit, adopted for their crest a castle or
tower sable, flames issuing out of the top thereof, and a demi-lion
rampant with a sword in his right paw issuing out of the flames.5

1 Chron. de Lanercost (Maitland Club), pp. 250, 251.

2 John Denton, Accompt of Estates and Families in Cumberland, p. 94.

3 The date of these letters patent was apparently in 1348, for on 2Oth and 2ist
September in the sixteenth year of his reign, King Edward Balliol issued from
Eastholm similar letters patent respecting lands in Galloway, which were after-
wards inspected and confirmed by Edward III. (Cal. of Pat. 1354-1358, pp. 142-3).
Denton, the historian, must have been quoting from family documents when he
made the statement in the text.

4 On the death of the Earl of Hereford, Edward III. placed the castle of Loch-
maban and the lordship of Annandale in the custody of John of Denton in 1362,
which he was to hold till the heir came of age (Rot. Scocie, i. 86 1 b).

5 When this heraldic crest was exhibited to Dugdale at his visitation in Carlisle
in 1665, he noted that there was 'no proofe made of these armes.' Colonel
George Denton, who attended, was not an antiquary, but had his grandfather
been present, who told the story, Norroy King of Arms might have been satisfied.

The First Historian of Cumberland 7

Cradled in these family traditions, young John Denton, the
future historian, grew up at Cardew Hall, the residential seat of a
considerable estate in the manor of Dalston, acquired by his
ancestors in the fourteenth century, and within a short distance of
Rose Castle, the caput of the manor and historic residence of the
Bishops of Carlisle. Unfortunately the exact date of his birth has
not been ascertained, but as his father was seven years of age in
1 54O,1 it may be assumed that the eldest son saw the light soon
after the middle of the sixteenth century. While a youth he
became a page in the household of Bishop Barnes of Carlisle
(1570-1577), his father's neighbour and feudal superior. Early
associations with Rose Castle and its archives probably inoculated
him with the virus for records and record-searching which after-
wards proved the passion as well as the bane of his life. After a
course of training in the law, most likely at Gray's Inn, under
his kinsman George Lamplugh, to whom he was obliged in
after years, owing to his litigious propensities, to mortgage his
property, he succeeded his father, Henry Denton, in the Cardew
estate in 1584. As a country gentleman he was placed in the
commission of the peace, and living so near Carlisle and Rose
Castle he became on friendly terms with the bishops and pre-
bendaries, as well as the diocesan and capitular officials.

After the death in 1595 of his wife, who was the daughter of a
family of distinction in that neighbourhood, Denton's antiquarian
and legal tastes were quickened by his appointment as an agent in
Cumberland for the discovery of concealed lands on behalf of
Queen Elizabeth which necessitated frequent journeys to London
on that business. About the same time (1598) his kinsman Dr.
Henry Robinson was promoted to the see of Carlisle, who gave
him free access to the diocesan archives. His social connexions
brought him into contact with the principal families of the county
and afforded him opportunity of making himself acquainted with
the contents of their muniment rooms.

But the field on which he reaped the richest harvest and from
which he drew the bulk of his historical materials was the Tower
of London, where the national records were then stored, and
where he spent much of his time in 1600 and 1601 in prosecu-
tion of the duties of his office. From the public records in the
Tower he acquired a wealth of historical knowledge relating to
the descent of manors and families in his native county, which he
subsequently digested in formal shape and left behind him in
1 Chancery, Inq. p.m., 34 Hen. VIII., file 65, Nos. 18, 19.

8 Rev. James Wilson

manuscript. In 1887 a copy of the manuscript was printed1
under the title of An Accompt of the most considerable Estates
and Families in the County of Cumberland^ from the Conquest
unto the beginning of the reign of K. James \the First], by John
Denton of Cardew. The print covers 159 octavo pages. Though
there were seven copies of the manuscript before the editor, no
attempt was made to collate them with a view of ascertaining the
best text. In some of the copies it is stated that the account was
brought up to 1610, seven years before the author's death. This
brief sketch of environment may be taken as the general back-
ground for a picture of the first historian of Cumberland.

Denton's legal training and special knowledge of the territorial
history of Cumberland gave him pre-eminence among his neigh-
bours as an authority on disputes about land and tithes. In course
of time he was embroiled with successive Bishops of Carlisle on
matters connected with the manor of Dalston, of which he was
one of the largest landowners. His official work as an agent for
concealed lands disturbed the social amenities of several families
in the county. It may be truly said that before his death in 1617
John Denton was a mischievous influence in Cumberland.

There is a legend that Denton wrote his history during the
time of his imprisonment in the Tower upon a contest between
him and Bishop Robinson of Carlisle. The supposition is very
unlikely. Refusal to do suit at the bishop's manor-court, or to
grind corn at the bishop's mills was scarcely an offence to merit
such high punishment. His visits to the Tower appear to have
been for another purpose ; he went there as one of the Queen's
agents to study the public records. We have c a note of suche
recordes as Mr. Denton hath scene and had notes of by warrant
of Mr. Attorney Generall, bearinge date the xxxth of January,
1600.' The document2 is endorsed ' serches pro Regina by Mr.
Aturnye Geinralls warrant to Mr. Denton, 1600, 1601.' Those
who take the trouble to glance at the list of evidences consulted
by him will come away with unfeigned respect for his patience
and industry. All the chief classes of rolls and records from
the reign of King John to that of Edward IV., useful for his
business, were supplied to him. If the custody of the national
records then and now be compared, students, accustomed to

1 As one of its Tract Series by the Cumberland and Westmorland Archaeological
Society under the care of Mr. R. S. Ferguson, F.S.A., Chancellor of Carlisle.

2 S. P. Don. Elizabeth, vol. cclixix. folio 70.

The First Historian of Cumberland 9

work from original materials, can well imagine the difficulties
under which he carried on his labours.

Evidence of the unpleasantness caused by Denton's work on
behalf of the Crown may be gathered from a letter of one of his
confederates in 1608 to the Earl of Salisbury. As the communi-
cation throws a much-needed light upon the methods then in
fashion, it would be a pity to abridge it.

Rl honorable, my duety in all humble manner remembred. May it
please yor lo[rdship]. I understand yl Sr Willfryd Lawson haithe used
slanderous and hard speaches against one Mr. Denton, a justice of peace in
Comberland, and my selfe, onely because we offred by the meanes of the
Bushop of Bristoll, who therwithe acquainted his Majesty to advaunce his
highnes revynews in landes yearly 3OOOH wch is intayled and belonging to
ye Crowne, deteyned and wrongfullye possessed by ye said Lawson and
soundrye others asshalbe proved by auncyent recordes, intaylesand attaynders.

Now to hinder the Kinges title frome tryall, he plottes to disgrace us
behind our backes by odyous enformacions to yor lo[rdship] and other
honorable persons wherein he can reape no credet. Yt is not fit the
Kinges revynews shold be concealed and still wrongfullye possessed upon
his untrue suggestions, who threatnes by impresonment and other unlaw-
full proceadinges to hinder Mr. Denton and me in ye sayd service.

My humble sewt to yor lo[rdship] is y1 his Majesty may have an honor-
able, open and lawfull tryall, where the best in the countrye may be
commissioners and jurors, wherbye yt shall appere yl the Kinges Majesty
seekes nothing but his auncyent Crowne landes, wch we have ben willed
by comaundm1 to mayke knowne and prosecute on his Majesty behaulfe.

In the meantyme I humble pray yor l[ordship] to geve no credett too
malycious reportes, pryuet lettres nor backbyting wordes, and yl yow will
suspend yor honorable iudgment upon us untill the truth be tryed, and
yor l[ordship] therwith better acquainted, and I shall ever, according to
my duety, pray for yor lo[rdship's] healthe in honorable estate long to
contynew, xvjth May, 1608.

Yor l[ordship's] humble to comaund
in all dewtyfull srvice

ANT : ATKINSON.

Post scriptum. Ther be Sr John Dalston and gentlemen of good sort in
Comberland now in London yl will maike knowne unto his Majesty and
yor lo[rdship] yl the Kinges title is lawfull and ho[nora]ble and yl Mr.
Denton and myselfe are much abused by skandelous reporte of Sr Wilfryd
Lawson our aidverserye.1

[Addressed]

To the Rl honorable Robert Thearle of Salesburye, Lord Highe
Treasorer of England at Court, eleswhere give theise.

[Endorsed]

Anthony Atkinson to my Lord, 1608.

1 S. P. Dam. James I. vol. xxxii. fol. 50.

io Rev. James Wilson

At a later stage of Denton's career, it was given in charge
against him that in the time of Queen Elizabeth he claimed to
entitle her to the lands of Sir Wilfrid Lawson, under which pre-
tence he obtained leave to search all the records of the Crown,
and that thereby he was stored to fill his country full of broils,
without any benefit to the Queen.

We have little to do here with the merits of our antiquary's
disputes with successive Bishops of Carlisle respecting the feudal
status of his property. Denton maintained that Cardew was a
manor of itself, independent of the lordship of Dalston, which
was an appurtenant of the see of Carlisle. Throughout this
controversy he appears to have manifested a churlish distemper
and a lack of intelligence not to be expected of him. In an
unguarded moment he alluded to Bishop May (1577-1598) in
the hearing of two of the bishop's friends as ' little John May.'
When reminded of this irreverent treatment of ecclesiastical
dignities, he pleaded that his reference was not meant to be
contemptuous : it was only a pleasantry on the bishop's short-
ness of stature.

Denton's repudiation of the services due to his feudal superior
was at last grappled with in earnest by Bishop Henry Robinson
(1598-1616), his kinsman. The depositions on commission,
taken at Raughtonhead1 on 5 Oct., 1612, and at Dalston church 2
on 14 April, 1613, afford exhaustive evidence on the tenurial
problem. But with this aspect of the litigation we are not con-
cerned. The legal proceedings which followed are much more to
our purpose. John Denton in the witness box, examined on his
dealings with local and historical evidences, is an interesting
figure. The Elizabethan archivist was at bay, and he had to face
the music.

When the bishop's legal advisers were preparing the case for
the prosecution, it was found that many charters and other evi-
dences of the see of Carlisle were missing, and suspicion of
malfaisance, having regard to his former associations with Rose
Castle, fell on Denton. Descriptive particulars of the lost deeds,
as entered on counsel's brief, are as follows :

Charters lost or embezelled from the Bishops of Carlile wherof mencon
is made in both ancient and nue repertories.

Carta H. 3 super concess[ione] 14 ac[rarum] in Haithuaite et Fornscale
Hailme.3

1 Excheq. Depositions by Commission, io James I., Michaelmas, No. 17.
id. ii James I., Easter, No. i. 3 Chart. Roll, 36 Hen. III. m. 7.

The First Historian of Cumberland n

Quieta Clamacio Michaelis de Hartcla de manerio de Dalston.1

Quieta Clamacio Th. Dermun de terris infra baroniam de Dalston.

Carta de tofto in suburbio Carlile.

Carta de terra in Milholme.

Carta Lovell de fornella in Dalston.

Carta R[egis] E[dwardi i] de fonte de Welton.2

Carta R. 2 de bruerio concesso tenentibus Episcopi infra forestam de

Ingl[ewood].3
Carta Regis H. de dimidia carucata terre in suburbio Car[lioli] in feodo de

Dalston.

Carta Regis super testamento Walteri episcopi.4

Carta Regis de una acra contigua et nunc inclusa in parco suo de Rosa.5
Carta Regis super diversis in maneriis dimitentis post mortem Episcopi.6
Carta de tenementis in Foxle haineing.
Carta Nicol Sissons de terris in Raughton.
Carta H. filii H. Thranghole pro terris in Raughton.
Carta Roberti Bacon militis pro terris in Raughton.
Quieta Clamacio Dermun [pro] terris in Raughton
Carta Symonis de Raughton.
Carta Rayneri de Raughton.

Carta Regis E[dwardi iii] de largitione parci de Rosa.7
Perambulacio manerii de Dalston — 8lent to Den ton by my lord and restored

as he thinketh, but by some indirect course conveyed before this sute

begun.
Carta Johannis de Bormeton [«V], vicker de Denton in Gilsland, super terris

et tenementis in villa de Cardew. This was to be had in Bishop Barnes

his time, whose servant this Denton was, but it is supposed gotten in

tempore Episcopi nunc.

Carta Willelmi filii Walteri de terra in Raughton (cancelled).
Q[uieta] Clam[acio] Henrici de Thrangh[olme] de terris in Brackenthuaite

(cancelled)?

From the descriptive enumeration here given, it will be seen
that copies of the royal grants, as Denton could have told them
had he been so minded, might have been obtained from the
duplicates enrolled in the King's archives.10 What answers he

1 This quit-claim would be of immense interest in view of the pleas in Bench,
of which it was the settlement.

2 Pat. Roll, 20 Edw. I. m. 21. 3 Pat. Roll, 20 Ric. II. pt. i. m. 32.
*Pat. Roll, 29 Hen. III. m. 4. 5 Pat. Roll, 23 Edw. I. m. 7.

6 Chart. Roll, 20 Edw. I. m. 14. 7 Pat. Roll, 31 Edw. III. pt. 3, m. 8.

8 In the margin this record is noted as being in ' Libro 1. 49.' A copy is still
in existence in Carl. Epis. Reg. Kirkby, MS. fol. 289.

9 Document in the diocesan registry of Carlisle.

10 In the preceding notes attempt has been made to trace some of them, despite
the imperfect descriptions. With a little care the rest could be identified. The
loss of private grants is of course irreparable.

12 Rev. James Wilson

made to the interrogatories respecting these deeds and kindred
matters will be noticed presently. One important point is made
clear by this table of missing evidences. The lost registers of the
bishopric were not in question.

It is satisfactory to have a picture of the Cumberland historian
though it is drawn by the hand of an adversary. As a con-
temporary estimate of his character it is probably unique. The
following notes are entered on the brief for the prosecution, in
his dispute with Bishop Robinson, as a guide to counsel in
cross-exam i nation.

Mr. Denton was servant to Bishop Barnes, in whose time the charter of
Jo[hn] Burden, vicare of Denton in Gilsland, who gave the lande in
Cardewe to Jo[hn] of Halghton, Bishop of Carlile, and his heires, was
amongst other the Bishop's evidence as appeareth in repertorio Barnes.

Denton being the nowe Bishop's kinsman was permitted to peruse all
the evidences belongeing to the Bishoprick, before himself went to take
possession of his Bishoprick. So soone as the nowe Bishop came to his
place, Denton had the veweing and marshalling of all his evidences and
was trusted to have access unto them att his pleasure.

The nowe Bishop lent unto Denton one ancient survey or perambulation
of the time of H[enry] 3, which he confesseth Denton restored againe, but
the same is since embezelled, so that it can not nowe be found. Denton
went about to corrupt and persuade John Blackett, the nowe Bishop's
secretarie, to bring unto him the most ancient Leger booke,1 which the
Bishop hath, wherin the services of the tenants of the manor of Dalston
and Denton's ancestors of Cardewe are expressed.

About 41 Elizabeth [1598-9] Sir Edward Dymock being about to take
a lease of the soake of Horncastle in Lincolnshire from the nowe Bishop,2
nether of them cold conceave howe to make a good lease for want of a
particular. Denton being present as a principall assistant or counsellor to my
lord desired that he might go to his owne house and he wold satisfie them
howe that lease might be made, wch he then did and brought them a
particular, and a lease was made accordingly. In the time of Queen
Elizabeth, he intitled her to the lands of Sir Wilfride Lawson, Kt., under
which pretence he obtained warrant to search all the Records of the
Crowne, by which meanes he is stored to fill his countrie full of broiles,
and yett did not benifete the Queene anything.

He hath had the secrett fingering of all the evidences of the church of
Carlile.

He hath insinueated himself into as many of the gentlemen's evidence in
his countrie as wold give him any creditt.

He hath whole loads of old evidences gotten heere and there.3

1 By this book is meant the first of the series of Episcopal Registers now in the
diocesan registry of Carlisle.

2 A draft copy of this lease still exists in the diocesan registry of Carlisle.

3 Document in the diocesan registry of Carlisle.

The First Historian of Cumberland 13

There is nothing very definite in this catalogue of suggested
misdemeanours, though it looks as if there was a touch of
malice in the penultimate clauses. The charge of having had
* the secret fingering of all the evidences ' of the capitular body
seems somewhat vague. Was it relevant to the suit that de-
fendant was acquainted with the muniments of the local squires ?
We can forgive, however, all this forensic embroidery in
view of the last charge levelled at the unfortunate antiquary.
Admirers of Denton's contribution to the history of Cum-
berland will thank his persecutors for telling that Cardew Hall
had been stored with whole loads of old evidences gotten here
and there.

As Denton's depositions, in answer to the charges of embezzling
the evidences in the episcopal and capitular repositories, have been
printed in the appendix, little need be said here by way of eluci-
dation. He repudiated the charges of having had, at any time of
his life, private access to ecclesiastical records ; they were so
strictly kept that nobody was allowed to consult them except
under official supervision. To repeated questions how he had
got such and such information, his triumphant answer was that he
had recourse to ' the records about London,' as any subject for his
money might have had at his pleasure. The allegations about the
misappropriation of the evidences, which he rejected with vigour
and straightforwardness, completely broke down, and no blame
was attached to him in that respect. Denton had pursued his
studies in the Tower to some purpose. Though he was mulcted
in damages on the tenurial question, his integrity as a student of
records was left without stain.

When we come to estimate the value of Denton's contribution
to local historical knowledge, there is a hazard of raking up the
hot ashes of controversy. It should never be forgotten that he
had no predecessors. John Denton may be rightly called the
father of Cumberland history. Like an illustrious pioneer in the
same field, it was his fate to travail a lonely and untrodden path.
By the authors of the early county histories of Cumberland he
was accepted as an unquestioned authority. His manuscript
' Accompt ' was embodied without acknowledgment by his distant
kinsman, Thomas Denton of Warnel, who compiled a historical
survey of Cumberland in 1687 at the instance of Sir John
Lowther, a work which still remains in manuscript. The history
of Nicolson and Burn, published in 1777, is indebted to the
labours of John Denton for nearly all their historical data on the

14 Rev. James Wilson

early territorial descent of the county. The researches of Denton
were simply transferred without criticism or cavil.

The other county historians follow Nicolson and Burn like
sheep through a gap, with the notable exception of Messrs. Lysons
in 1 8 1 6, who made some use of the ' Perambulation ' of Thomas
Denton in that department in which his information was first
hand, viz. when he discoursed on contemporary events. Through-
out the series of county histories, definite historical statements
on the early medieval period may be traced in the main to the
fountainhead at Cardew Hall. It is readily admitted that each
of the county histories has a value of its own, especially those of
Nicolson and Burn and the Messrs. Lysons, but on a general
view of the series it may be assumed that the work of John
Denton, so far as the idea of a county history came within his
purview, lies beneath the surface as the bed-rock of them all.

When the Archaeological Institute met at Carlisle in 1859, a
paper was read by John Hodgson Hinde, vice-president of the
Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, on the early
history of Cumberland,1 which came like a bolt from a cloudless
sky. Mr. Hinde was a scholar of considerable repute who had
done much original work for the history of the northern counties
of England. The right of a student, who had edited with skill
and learning the Pipe Rolls of Cumberland and Westmorland, to
* lay down the law ' on the subject of his dissertation, few will
deny. In pointing out * the inaccuracy, not to use a harsher term,
of the authorities which have hitherto been relied on, in tracing
the general history of Cumberland,' he indicated that many of the
misstatements ' originate with the Chronicon Cumbriae, but these
are amplified and augmented by succeeding compilers, especially
by two persons of the name of Denton, whose manuscript collec-
tions have been the main source from whence modern historians of
the county have derived their information as to the early descent
of property, and the genealogy of its possessors.' 2 This appears a
heavy indictment to be grounded on the few instances of inaccuracy
that Mr. Hinde thought fit to give, but it has been enough to raise
up a whole crop of servile imitators, whose only title to considera-
tion is their temerity in depreciating the elder Denton's authority.3

1 Printed in the Archaeological Journal, xvi. 217-235.

2 Ibid. pp. 234-5.

3 It is only fair to make two notable exceptions. When Chancellor Prescott, in
his edition of the Register of Wetherhal, disagrees with Denton, he shows cause for
his dissent. Mr. F. H. M. Parker, in his edition of the Pipe Rolls of Cumberland,

The First Historian of Cumberland 15

It should be premised that John Denton made no claim to be a
political or ecclesiastical historian. The title prefixed to his work
shows that his aim was to trace the descent ' of the most consider-
able estates and families in the county of Cumberland.' His
manuscript is without doubt fragmentary and unfinished : a good
text is still a desideratum : there is no evidence that it was intended
for the public eye. So far as can be judged the 'Accompt' was
drawn up as a guide for himself in his investigations on behalf of
the Crown. Every reader, acquainted with original sources, must
acknowledge that Denton worked from the best evidences he could
find in the limited sphere of his undertaking : he was not a
second-hand expositor of other men's collections : he had no
opportunity, like Mr. Hinde and his imitators, to establish his
infallibility by criticising the labours of his predecessors.

When original evidences were not available for his purpose, he
had recourse, and that very sparingly, to second-rate documents,
the chief of which was that much maligned tract known as the
Chronicon Cumbrie.1 It is rather singular that the statements of
Denton, which have called forth the loudest lamentation, were
taken from that document. In estimating the sources of his
admitted errors, the Chronicon may be accepted as a specimen of
the authorities by which he was led astray.

It is well to remember the nature and character of this compil-
ation. Some of Denton's detractors describe it as a monkish
legend. It is nothing of the kind, though we are indebted for its
preservation to the literary instincts of the medieval churchmen of
Cumberland. Speaking in a general way, the greater part of it,
except the few preliminary flourishes of the exordium, is of the
utmost historical value. This is not the place to test its state-
ments, but it may be briefly said that the tract must be judged in
the light of the environment from whence it emanated. This
source of some of Denton's errors is a legal document of the early
part of the fourteenth century, compiled, like other documents of
that period, for submission to the King's Courts in proof of the
territorial descent of the Honor of Cockermouth from the fount
of tenure to the date of the great dispute.2 In the absence of direct

has pronounced Denton's work as ' a wonderful record of wide and painstaking
research.' It is significant that both writers are students of original sources.

1 A trustworthy text of this short document is very much needed. It has been too
often printed from corrupt sources.

2 See my arguments in Viet. Hist, of Cumb. i. 297-8, which have been accepted
by such an authority as Dr. William Greenwell in Hist, of Northumberland, vii. 29.

1 6 Rev. James Wilson

evidence for the earlier devolution ot manorial history, Denton
accepted the authority of the compilation. Does his credulity
merit the indignation of his quasi-faultless successors ?

Denton, following his fourteenth century authority, introduced
William the Conqueror as the original source of Cumberland
tenure — an error which has brought simpering blushes to the
cheeks of so many of our local antiquaries. The bulk of them
have held this statement so near their eyes that they can see little
good in its author. As there is no direct proof for the presence
of William I. in Carlisle, it might well be maintained that there is
none against it. But it has been generally accepted, thanks to the
elaborate and consummate arguments of Professor Freeman, that
the Conqueror had no connexion with the district now known as
Cumberland. The tradition mentioned in the Chronicon, however,
has a very respectable lineage and, in the judgment of the writer,
appears, like the tract itself, to be of legal origin. In the records of
the early medieval courts of England the Conqueror occupies a
prominent position as a source of tenure. It is well known that
when the early justices itinerant came on circuit to Carlisle, they
•would have nothing to do with local frontier customs, but insisted
on their interpretation by the legal standards of the rest of the
kingdom. This obstinacy of the judges has so confused and
obfuscated the great service of cornage that scholars have been at
loggerheads about its true nature for the past three centuries. It
was probably in this way that William the Conqueror was
imported into Cumbrian legal phraseology and stuck fast in the
Cumbrian mind.

It will be sufficient if only two instances be given of the
occurrence of this legal fiction outside of its adoption in the
Chronicon Cumbrie which Denton regarded as genuine history.
So early as 1227 a Cumbrian magnate pleaded in court that he
claimed no more for his manor than his ancestors died seised of,
from father to son, from the first conquest 1 (a primo Conquestu).
The latter phrase must have been regarded in judicial circles
as the origin of tenure. The popular conception is illustrated
in the parley between William Wallace and the citizens of Car-
lisle half a century later. ' My master William the Conqueror,'
said Wallace's messenger, ' demands the surrender ot the town.'
' Who is this Conqueror ? ' replied the citizens. £ William whom
ye name Wallace,' was the rejoinder. * Tell him,' said the
citizens, ' that if he wishes to come after the manner of the good
1 Coram Rege Roll, u Hen. III., No. 27, m. 4.

The First Historian of Cumberland 17

Conqueror and besiege the place, he can have, if he is able to
take them, the city and castle and all their belongings.' l In
view of the prevailing tradition and of the source from which
it appears to have originated, the error of Denton cannot be
regarded as a serious blunder. If the whole compilation be
examined from the viewpoint of sources, it will be discovered
that the author had some authority for his statements,2 not the
best perhaps, but at least authorities on which he relied. Imagina-
tion plays a wonderfully insignificant part in his dry record.

In taking a general view of Denton's place in Cumbrian
history, no writer that has yet arisen can approach in complete-
ness his contribution to its earlier periods within the limits he
had set himself. It would be absurd to say that he made no
mistakes. Errors there are in his work, of identification, of
genealogy, of manorial descent. The marvel is, when his sur-
roundings and opportunities are considered, that there are not
many more. The chief charm about him is that he was a record
scholar, marshalling ' his whole loads of old evidences gotten here
and there ' into order and telling his story with the triteness and
circumspection of a lawyer. He stands alone among the Cum-
brian students of the past as having worked through the chief
classes of the national records. It is a welcome refreshment to
turn to his pages and read in English the very words of * the
records about London ' which he procured at his own expense.
Justice has not been done to John Denton either by his editor or
by his critics. The whole tendency of recent depreciation makes a
demand on the Cumberland and Westmorland Archaeological
Society, which is responsible for printing a copy of his manuscript,
that some competent student should undertake a new edition
with the double purpose of producing a trustworthy text and of
substantiating or disproving from original sources its historical
statements. In view of the indebtedness of Cumberland to the
labours of one of its sons, this reparation is the least that is due
to his memory. The county has produced so few native-born
students of its history, that it can scarcely afford to allow the
most imposing figure amongst them to occupy an uncertain place
in its annals.

1 Walter of Hemingburgh, Chronicon (Engl. Hist. Soc.), ii. 42.

2 Another example may be cited. When Denton states that the priory ot
Lanercost was founded in 1 1 1 6, he was evidently following an early list of dated
foundations given in the chartulary of that house. On the other hand, it may well
happen that a copyist of Denton's autograph had in error mistaken 1161 for 1116.

B

i8

Rev. James Wilson

APPENDIX

Depositions of John Denton Esqre to Articles &c., 24 of Nov.
1615.

1. To the first interrogatory] he saith that he was servant to
Serving of Bushope Barnes as his page, and to his remembranc the
Buihope evidences then belonginge to the Bushopbrick of Carlile were
Barnes. then in the custodye of John Barnes his brother & very

strictlye loked unto, so as neyther this examynate nor any
other to his knowledg had nor could have private accesse to his
evidences but in the presents of the said Bushope him self &
the said John Barnes or thone of them.

And he verylye thinketh the said Bushope left them to the

Bushope next successor, John May, late Bushope of Carlyle. And this

Maye. examynate further saith that he never had any such interest or

allowanc with the said John May that he ever had or could

have accesse to any parte of the said evidences, saving such

certayne leases of tythes & other things mayd to this

examinate & to his use by the said Bushope Maye as he now

remembreth.

2. To the [second] inter[rogatory] he saith that he remembreth
that he had certayne Rowles of Accompts & Rentalls of
lands in Dalston in his possession, some on paper, some on

Tomlynscn parchment, at such tyme as the said Nycholas Tomlynson of

y theRowle Haukesdayle in Cumberland came to this examynate's house,

spoken of. w0*1 this examynate then had by delyvery of the plaintiff, all

wch this examynate did delyver or cause to be delyvered agayne

to the plaintiff, wherof he veryly thinketh one of the said

Rowles was sythenc reddye to be produced agaynst him this

examynate at the hearyng of the cause in thexchequer

between the plaintiff & this examynate.

What Rowle But what Rowle or accompt Tomlynson meaneth of, this
ment of Tom- examynate knoweth nott. And what speches the said Tomlyn-
lynson speches. son then had this examynate doth not remember.

3. To the [third] interrogatory] he saith that the said Christoffer
Curwen & Henry Sandes came to this examynate's house,

Curwen cff wher they had some speches consernyng John May, late
Sandes. Bushope of Carlile, wch was a man of lowe stature, and, therfore,

this examynate did name him to them by the name of lytle
John Maye, without any such splentick or scornefull thought
as they pretend, of wch they have sythenc mayd a more hard
construction then was ever ment or intended by this examynate.
And thinketh that they sythenc so misinterpreted his words &
meanyng out of their owne distemper after the words ware
spoken, because this examynate stood agaynst them in defenc of
the tytle & wardshipe of John Lamplughe, his kynsman,

The First Historian of Cumberland 19

being an infant, comytted in truste to this examynate &
others by his unkell, whose heir he was. And to aggrevate the
plaintiff's displeasure the moer agaynst this examynate, wch said
Sandes did also in his said displeasure comytt a servant of this
examynates to close prison, for geving warnyng at Dalstoun
Church of a Court to be holden by this examynate, pretending
some unlawfull behavior wch he could nott prove or make good
before the Justices of Assisses before whom the same was called
to examynation. And for the booke mencond in this inter- Booke ment
rogatory, this examynate knoweth nott what book is ment, butt unknowne.
saith that he had & hath sene in the hands of John Smythe
of Carlyle and Mr. Walkwood, prebendary, dyvers bookes and
peces of bookes, some in parchment & some in paper, wch, as
he thinketh, belonged some to the Priory of Carlyle and
some to the Deane & Chapter of Carlyle, wch came to
this examynates handes, parte by delyvery of them selfs and
parte therof sent unto him, this examynate, by their then
servants or such whome they used, whose names he now
remembreth nott. All wch this examynate delyvered & sent
to be delyvered to them agayne. And veryly thinketh that one
of those bookes is the booke ment and menconed in this inter- Book ment.
rogatory and contayned as this examynate now remembreth
leases mayd by the Pryor and Convent and by the Deane &
Chapter of their owne proper landes, with some fewe confyrma-
tions of Bushopes leases, and nott any other matter consernyng
the Sea to this examynates now remembranc.
To the [fourth] interr[ogatory] he saith that Rowland Toppin 4.
& John Stoddart of Carlyle, this examynates tenants, holding
a lease of certayn tythes from the Deane & Chapter of Carlile
ware impleaded by the now plaintiff in his eccleaseasticall court
for the same tythe or some parte therof as they reported, who,
repayring to this examynate to knowe what he could say unto For
the matter, did delyver unto them such of his owne evidences contributions.
as conserned the soyle of some parte of the same and told them
that yf they could procure of the Deane & Chapter their
distributions yt wold make the matter playne to whome yt
belonged. After wch the said Toppin, as this examynate now
remembreth, brought to this examynate certayne distributions
of the Deane & Chapters under scale, wch compared together
mayd apparant the same tythe in question to belong to the
Deane & Chapter, and nott to the Bushope, and so is
by them enioyed to this daye as he thinketh. From w0*1 dis-
tributions certayne notes were taken for the good of the sayd
Toppin & Stoddart wch were the same mencond in this Notes from
interrogatory that Bleckett did see at this examynates house, distributions
And further saith that, after such notes taken, this examynate for Bleckett.
was called before thre of the prebendaries, and their did agayne
see the said distributions wch were then by them as owners

2O

Rev. James Wilson

A perfect
bounder.

The mill

John Bleckett.

Eleckett.

6.

For
Warrwick.

Rotele
menconed in
the
interrogatory.

taken into their possession agayne, where he thinketh the same
are as yett remayninge. And further saith, that emongst wch
sealed writyngs a perfect bounder betwene the Kinges
majestyes landes and the plaintiffes manner of Dalston appeared
playne, and how much is encroched their upon the Kinge.
And that the myll now claymed as Dalston myll standeth upon
the Kinges land and nott upon any parte of the manner of
Dalston. And saith that he, this examynate, hath nott any of
the evidences, notes or writynges in his custodye, nor knoweth
who hath the same.

To the [fifth] interrogatory] he saith that the John Bleckett,
in the interrogatory named, came to this examynate to
Cardewe, to entreat him to derect the sd Bleckett what
thing was fyttyng for him to begg in lease of his lord the
Bushope of Carlyle. And this examinate moved him to gett a
tythe in lease about Carlyle. And did aske him withall
whether he did knowe such a booke as is menconed in this
interrogatorye. And moved him to entreat a sight of that
book, because that this examynate did think that j^t did conserne
his estate, in this, viz., whether the mannor of Cardewe, in the
parishe of Dalstoun, was reported in the coppie of the Kinges
grant menconed in that book mayd to the said sea of Carlele, to
be parcell of the mannor of Dalstoune, yea or no. And the
said Bleckett told this examynate that those bookes were in his
maysters custodye. Wherupon this examynate resorted to the
records about London, and fyndyng their the said charter upon
record, their appeared nott in the same any report of the
mannor of Cardewe nor of any landes within the same did
belong to the sea of Carlyle. And that from the Kinges
records this examynate hath his information and that the landes
in question is held of the Kinge & nott of the plaintiff nor of
the sea of Carlyle.

To the [sixth] interrogatory] he saith that he doth nott
remember that the said Warrick did shewe to this examynate
any evidences that this examynate knoweth to belong to the
sea of Carlyll. Butt this examynate did advise the said p[ar]son
Warrwick & afterward the said plaintiff him selfe, and was a
meane that the plaintiff attayned dyvers evidences wch belonged
to the said sea from the handes of John May, sonn to the late
John Maye, Bushope of Carlile, amongst w°h was that Rowle in
parchment in the said interrogatory menscond, wch never came
to this examjnates handes sythenc the same was delivered to the
said plaintiff. And that the copies w°h he tooke was notes to lead
him, this examynate, to the records them selfs about London,
which when he had found to be agreable to his evydenc, this
examynate no further estemed of the said notes, butt disposed
them to other uses as he thinketh was lawfull for him to do.
And some copies he hath from the said records remaynyng in

The First Historian of Cumberland 21

or nere London as any subiect for their money may have at

there pleasures, wch copies were taken sync his answere putt in

to the plaintiffs bill of complaint. And for the evidences of the

said John Burden, this examynate saith that he receyved them j0Jm Burden.

from his father, in whose handes he had sene them fortye yeares

ago, and came to this examynate as of right, after the descease of

his father, whose heire he is, wch evidences he showed both to the

plaintiff and also to John Dudley at a court holden at Dalstoun.

Which John Burden is reported by the said evidences to be

lord of the mannor of Cardewe with the appurtenances, and

lykewise of the landes in Cardewe w0*1 were John Pantryes,

who had them of the gifte of John Hawton, Bushope of Carlile,

wch held the same of the King as appeareth by recordes about

London, and to hold in capitie in fee and nott as parcell of his

sea of Carlile. To w^1 John Burden this examynate is heire

de facto et de sanguine of all his landes in Cardewe & the

mannor of Cardewe.1

1 Document in the diocesan registry of Carlisle. It is a pleasure as
well as a duty to thank the Lord Bishop of Carlisle and Mr. A. N.
Bowman, his courteous registrar, for permission and facilities to
consult the diocesan archives.

Chronicle of Lanercost1

ON the feast of S. Barnabas the Apostle2 there happened a
memorable instance of the untrustworthiness of the Welsh.
While my lord King Edward was besieging with a great
army the lofty castle of Edinburgh, huge machines for
casting stones having been set all round it, and after he had
violently battered the castle buildings for the space of three days
and nights with the discharge of seven score and eighteen stones,
on the eve of the festival named, he chose a certain Welshman,
his swiftest runner, whom he reckoned most trustworthy, com-
mitted to him many letters and, having provided him with
money, ordered him to make his way to London with the
utmost dispatch. This man was named Lewyn (as befitted his
fate8), which in English is pronounced Lefwyn. Now, going
straight to the tavern, he spent in gluttony all that he had
received for travelling expenses. Early on the morning of the
vigil, being Sunday,4 he made himself a laughing-stock to the
English by ordering his comrade to carry his shield before him,
declaring that he was not going to leave the place before he had
made an assault upon the garrison of the castle. Presenting
himself, therefore, with a balista before the gates, he cried upon
the wall guard to let down a rope to him, so that, having been
admitted in that manner, he might reveal to them all the secrets
of their enemy. The constable of the castle, as he informed me,
was taking the air when this rascal intruder was brought before
him, holding out in his hand the case with the royal letters.

* Behold, my lord,' said he, * the secrets of the King of
England ; examine them and see. Give me also part of the

1See Scottish Historical Review, vi. 13, 174, 281, 383; vii. 56, 160, 271, 377.

2 nth June.

3 There is here some play on the name which is not apparent to modern wits.

4 Mane diei ./fr/r— literally < early on the feast day,' but as S. Barnabas's day fell
on a Monday in that year, we must read * Early on the morning of the vigil.'

22

Chronicle of Lanercost 23

wall to defend, and see whether I know how to shoot with a
balista.'

But when the others would have opened the letters, their
commander forbade them to do so, and straightway, standing
on a high place, called loudly to men passing that they were
to make known in the king's court that one of their deserters
had proposed to those within [the castle] that they should
perpetrate a deceit, to which he [the constable] absolutely
declined to consent for honour's sake.

Sir John le Despenser attended at once to this announce-
ment, and to him the traitor was lowered1 on a rope, with
the letters intact, and the manner of his [Lewyn's] capture was
explained to the king when he got out of bed. Now that
prince greatly delighted in honesty. *I gratefully declare to
God,' quoth he, * that the fidelity of that honourable man has
overcome me. Give orders that henceforth no man attempt to
inflict injury upon the besieged, and that no machine cast a stone
against them.'

Thus the king's wrath was soothed, for he had previously
vowed that they should all be put to death. So sleep came to
the eyelids of those who had watched for three days, many of
them having vowed that, for security, they would so continue
while alive. On the morrow, by the royal indulgence, the
besieged sent messengers to King John [Balliol] who was
staying at Forfar, explaining their condition and demanding
assistance. But he [John] being unable to relieve them, gave
leave to each man to provide for his own safety.

But let me not be silent about the punishment of the afore-
said traitor, Lewyn. He was taken, tried, drawn and hanged
on a regular gibbet constructed for his crime. This tale I
have inserted here in order that wise men may avoid the
friendship of deceivers.

Pending the report of the messengers, King Edward raised
the siege and marched with a small force to Stirling, where he
found the castle evacuated for fear of him, the keys hanging
above the open doors, and the prisoners imploring his mercy,
whom he immediately ordered to be set at liberty. And so, in
the king's absence, after fifteen days' siege, the Maidens' Castle 2
was surrendered into the hands of Sir John le Despenser, a place
whereof it is nowhere recorded in the most ancient annals that it

1 Demittimur in Stevenson's edition, probably a clerical error for demittitur.

2 Castrum Puellarum, one of the names for Edinburgh.

24 Sir Herbert Maxwell, Bart.

had ever been captured before, owing to its height and strength.
It was called Edwynesburgh of old after its founder, King Edwyn,
who, it is said, placed his seven daughters therein for safety.

Now when it had been laid down by the Scots to their king
[John] that he was neither to offer battle nor accept peace, but
that he should keep in hiding by constant flight, King Edward,
on the other hand, strengthened his resolve that neither the
ocean should bear him [John] away, nor the hills and woods
hide him. Rather than that, having him surrounded by land
and sea at Kincardine, he compelled him to come to Montrose,
subject to King Edward's will and judgment. There he re-
nounced his kingly right, and, having experience of dishonest
counsellors, submitted to the perpetual loss both of his royal
honour in Scotland and of his paternal estates in England. For,
having been sent to London with his only son, he led an honour-
able, but retired life, satisfied with the funds allotted to him from
the king's exchequer. By divine ordinance these things were
accomplished on the morrow of the translation of S. Thomas the
Martyr,1 in retribution for the crime of Hugh de Morville, from
whom that witless creature2 [John] was descended; for just as
he [Morville] put S. Thomas to death, so thereafter there was
not one of his posterity who was not deprived either of his
personal dignity or of his landed property.

Also on the same day3 fell the anniversary of my lord,
Alexander,4 formerly King of Scotland, who descended from
the other daughter of the illustrious Earl David, besides
whom there proceeded from that sister no legitimate progeny
of the royal seed to her King Edward,5 who alone after William
the Bastard became monarch of the whole island. It is clear
that this succession to Scotland [came] not so much by right
of conquest or forfeiture as by nearness of blood to S. Margaret
whose daughter, Matilda, Henry the elder, King of England,
married [and became] heir, as is shown by what is written above.

1 8th July. 2 Acephalus. 8 8 th July.

*i.e. Alexander II., who died 8th July, 1249.

5 Qui ex alter a germanafilia deicendit David illustris comitis, ultra quern non pro-
cessit ex ilia sorore legitima soboles regalis seminis regi suo Edwardo. It seems im-
possible to make sense from this passage. Probably something has dropped out
or become garbled. c The illustrious Earl David ' might either be King David I.,
who was Earl of Northumberland, and reigned in Cumbria and Strathclyde till
he succeeded his brother, Alexander I., or King David's third son, who was Earl
of Huntingdon.

Chronicle of Lanercost 25

On the same day as the abdication King Edward gave a
splendid banquet to the nobles and commons ; but inasmuch
as in this life sorrow is mingled with rejoicing, the king received
on that day news of the death in Gascony of his brother, my
lord Edmund, a valiant knight and noble, who was genial and
merry, generous and pious. It is said that his death was brought
about by want of means, because he had with him a large body
of mercenaries and but little ready money. He left two sur-
viving youths, Thomas and Henry, his sons by the Queen of
Navarre ; of whom the elder took in marriage with her entire
inheritance the only daughter of my lord Henry, Earl of Lincoln,
who then possessed the earldoms of Lancaster and Ferrers in
right of his father, and those of Lincoln and Salisbury in right of
his wife.

About the same time there came an astonishing and unpre-
cedented flood in the Seine at Paris, probably a presage of things
to come, such as is described above as having happened in the
Tweed.1 For of a sudden, while men were not expecting it, and
were taking their ease in bed, the floods came and the winds blew
and threw down both the bridges of the city in deep water with
all upon them, which consisted of the choicer houses, superior
merchandise and brothels of the costlier class; and, just as in the
Apocalypse, all this wealth was ruined in a single hour, together
with its pleasures and luxury, so that the saying of Jeremiah may
be most aptly applied to them, that the iniquity of the people of
Paris was greater than the sin of the people of Sodom, which was
overwhelmed in a moment, nor could they avail to protect it.2

It is quite certain that this people had given such offence to
the Lord that they suffered punishment, not only for their own
transgression, but because of the corruption of their nation,
the consequence of whose pride is to undermine obedient faith
throughout the world. Having the appearance of piety, they
deny the power thereof ; they make a mockery of the sacraments ;
they blaspheme with sneers the Word of Life made flesh by a virgin
mother ; they boast of their iniquity more openly than did Sodom ;
and, as said by the Apostle Jude, they defile the flesh, they spurn
authority, and they blaspheme majesty.3 These things did the

^p. 273, 274 ante.

2 History repeated itself in the inundation of Paris during the winter 1909-10.

3 The severity of the chronicler's censure may be traced to its source in the
friendly relations between France and Scotland.

26 Sir Herbert Maxwell, Bart.

Virgin of virgins, as I consider, intend to avenge terribly — she
who, dwelling between the river banks of that city, has wrought
so many signs of salvation for that people, especially in quenching
the fires of hell, wherein no one worthy of her protection remains
abandoned beyond the ninth day.

In honour of the Glorious Virgin I will relate what took place
at an earlier time, in the tenth year of King Edward's reign ; at
least it was then made manifest, but not yet completed by the
actual events. Now, that turbulent and distracted nation, I mean
the Welsh, thinking to wreak their long-standing spite upon the
English, ever incur severer penalty for their wickedness. Thus
when led by a certain David, they were endeavouring to kindle mis-
chief in the realm of King Edward, and to turn his friendliness
into hostility, that energetic prince [Edward] mustered a force and,
marching against the enemy at Worcester, commended himself
and his troops, with many oblations and consecrations, to the
keeping of the Glorious Virgin. Immediately the Queen of
Virtues granted the petition of the suppliant, and, appearing
one night to a cleric named John, of the Church of S. Mary
of Shrewsbury, as he was sleeping, with her own hand laid
upon his bosom a closed letter fastened with a seal. Also
she commanded him — * Rise early, and carry for me the letter
I have given thee to King Edward who is quartered at Wor-
cester. Thou mayst be sure he will not withhold from thee a
suitable reward.'

On awaking he actually found the letter exactly according to the
vision. He remembered the mission commanded to him, but
bethought him of his own humble degree and hesitated to take
the journey.

The command was repeated to him and a reward was added.

He had a beloved comrade (a certain cleric J , named de

Houton, who, being still alive in the Minorite Order, constantly
describes the course of this incident) to whom he said : —

* I beg that you will bear me company as far as Worcester, for
I have some business to attend to at the king's court.'

But, whereas he never mentioned the sacred declaration of the
Blessed Virgin, his friend refused his request, not being aware
what reason there was for it. The Virgin, footstool of the Holy
Trinity, appeared for the third time to her sluggish servant, re-
proached him for disobedience, and as a punishment for his neglect
foretold that his death would be soon and sudden. Terrified at
this, he made his will, appointed executors, charging them to

Chronicle of Lanercost 27

forward the heavenly letter with the utmost haste, and then
expired suddenly.

Nobody could be found who would dare to present himself to
the king's notice except an insignificant tailor ; who, however, was
graciously received by the king, and did not retire with empty
hands. But when the king, by the hearth in his chamber, had
mastered the contents of the letter, he knelt thrice, kissing the
ground and returning thanks to the Glorious Virgin. ' And
where,' cried he, * is that cleric who brought this dispatch, and
whom the Virgin's word commends to me ? '

The substitute having informed him that the messenger was
dead, the king was much grieved. As to what the Queen of
Glory promised to him, he was not fully informed, except this,
that then and ever after he should successfully prevail over his
enemies ; and from that day to this he has observed a solemn fast
on bread and water every Saturday, through love of his protectress.
Moreover, he began to build in London a costly and sumptuous
church in praise of the same Mother of God, which is not yet
finished.

But let me return to my theme. After the abdication of John
de Balliol, as has been described, King Edward caused it to be
announced that, throughout his progress, no man should plunder
or burn, and further, that a fair price should be paid for all neces-
sary supplies. He marched forward into Mar to the merchant
town of Aberdeen, where some cunning messengers of the King
of the French, detained in some port, were taken and brought
into the king's presence, having many duplicate letters addressed to
the King of Scots as well as to his nobles. Although he [King
Edward] would have paid them out for their guile, he restrained
those who would do violence to these men, and, having restored
to them the letters which had been discovered, he sent them by
rapid stages to the neighbourhood of London, that they might see
and converse with the king of whom they were in search, and
telling him what they had found, might return by another way
to the country whence they came.

With kingly courage, he [King Edward] pressed forward into
the region of the unstable inhabitants of Moray, whither you will
not find in the ancient records that any one had penetrated since
Arthur. His purpose was to explore with scattered troops the
hills and woods and steep crags which the natives are accustomed
to count on as strongholds. With what piety and frugality he
performed all these things, let his pardons, condescensions,

28 Sir Herbert Maxwell, Bart.

bounties and festivals testify. Having brought all that land into
subjection he returned to Berwick on the octave of the Assump-
tion l where the homage of the people of Alban 2 was repeated to
my lord the King of England and his son and successor ; also it
was renewed again by a charter with all the seals of the nobles,
which remains confirmed by a solemn oath made in touching two
pieces of the Lord's cross. But that ceremony of swearing, not
being imbued by the faith of those who performed it, was worth-
less to them, as their open acts made manifest in the following
year.

Now something very pleasing to our people took place through
the aid of the Glorious Virgin on the day after the Assumption.3
After the men of the Cinque Ports had conveyed some knights
and foot-soldiers bound for Gascony, they encountered on the high
sea three hundred vessels bound from Spain to France with much
valuable cargo. Our people, who had but four score vessels,
attacked them and put them all to flight, capturing out of that
fleet eight and twenty ships and three galleys. In one of the
galleys they found sixty score hogsheads of wine. In celebration,
therefore, of that victory accorded them by God, they forwarded
part of the wine to the knights campaigning in Gascony, bringing
the rest to London for consecration, whereof my informant drank
some, a man of truthful conversation and learned in religion.
Events of this kind ought to be plainly described to those who
delight in vanities, and, having no experience of heavenly matters,
lightly esteem intercourse with the higher powers. For few may
be found in our age who deserve to share the sweetness of divine
revelation, not because of God's parsimony, but because of the
sluggishness of the spiritual sense.

Now in this year there happened to a certain holy virgin,
long consecrated to the life of an anchorite, a revelation which
ought not to be passed over in silence. In the district of Shrews-
bury, about six miles from the town, there dwelleth that holy
woman, Emma by name, who is accustomed to receive visits from
holy men ; and at the festival of S. Francis * (which is observed
rather on account of the merit of the, saint than of the Order itself,
whose dress she weareth), on the vigil of the saint she admitted
two friars of that order to hospitality. At midnight, the hour
when the friars are accustomed to sing praises to God, the holy

1 22nd August. 2/.*. Scotland.

3 1 6th August. 4 1 6th July.

Chronicle of Lanercost 29

woman rose from her bed, remembering in her pious heart
that on such a feast day a similar obligation lay upon her who
had become a recluse, and how much honour was shown to the
saint throughout the divers regions of the world. Kindled in
spirit by these [thoughts], she called her handmaid and told her
to bring a lamp for the morning praise. The lamp having been
brought and placed twice upon the altar of the oratory, a sudden
gust extinguished it, so that not a spark of light remained. Now
the patron of that church is the Herald of Christ and more than a
prophet,1 to whom the recluse was bound by more than common
love, and, as will be shown presently, had experienced much
intimacy with the friend of Christ. Therefore, while she was
wondering why her lamp should be extinguished, she beheld a
ray of heavenly light coming through the window of his oratory,
which was next the church, which, surpassing the radiance of the
sun, beautified with a heavenly lustre the features of her maidens,
who lay in a distant part of the house, notwithstanding that the
maidens themselves were weeping because of the abundance of the
celestial illumination. The Prior1 came in that he might bear
witness about the light, so that all men might believe through him.
The lamp was burning, shedding light and reassuring the
astonished woman. 'Behold,' said he, ' thou wilt presently have
a mass.' That saint, as often as he appeared to this handmaid of
Christ, held in his hand a roll as a token and badge of his office,
wherein was contained in order the holy gospel of God — ' In the
beginning was the Word.'

After the declaration of the Baptist there followed immediately
such a transcendent radiance as would rather have stunned than
stimulated human senses, had they not been sustained by grace ;
in which [radiance] appeared, with a wonderful fragrance, the
Mother of Eternal Light, environed by a brilliant tabernacle, in
token, as I suppose, that He who created her would find rest in
her tabernacle ; and four of the Minorite Order bore her company
in her propitious advent, of whom the chief was S. Antony, an
illustrious preacher of the Word, and with him were three others,
natives of England, famed either by their lives or by their wisdom.

The Queen of the World took her place, as was proper, over
the holy altar of the choir ; the others prepared themselves to
perform the mass. Then S. Antony led off in vestments of
indescribable [richness], and the others sang with such marvellous
sweetness and thrilling melody, that many blameless persons in

1 S. John the Baptist.

30 Sir Herbert Maxwell, Bart.

a distant part of the town wondered at the harmony, not knowing
whence it came.

Now the introitus of the mass was this, pronounced in a loud
voice — * Thou art the King of Glory, O Christ ! ' and what
follows, as far as — Te ergo quis famulis and subveni quos pretioso,
et caetera. The woman remembered that this was thrice repeated,
but the collect and epistle and the other parts of the mass she
could not so well recollect. And when she asked what were the
names of these persons, and inquired of the holy Baptist why
S. Francis was not present, she received this answer — * Upon this
his festival he himself has to intercede with God for numerous
persons who are invoking him as a new saint, therefore he was
unable to come on this occasion.'

At the time of preparing the sacred mystery in the aforesaid
mass, S. Antony elevated the Host with great dignity and
honour, whereat the holy Virgin 1 prostrated herself with the
others devoutly and low. At the close of the office, the Queen
of Mercy descended gently to the sister,2 and comforted her
with heavenly converse and confidences, besides touching her
beads3 with her blessed hand. But whereas those who die in
the sweet odour of Christ may be reckoned unhappy above all
others, while some ignorant persons may cavil at the divine
revelations accorded to this humble woman, to show what a
slander this is against the Lord, the forerunner of Christ said
as he departed : ' Inquire of those who sneer at divine bene-
factions whether the Evil Spirit can perform such sacred
mysteries, and rouse the friars who are slumbering here, to
whose senses thou mayest exhibit the light wherewith we have
purified this dwelling.'

The. holy woman immediately performed his bidding, and
and from the third cockcrow almost until the morning light
they [the friars] beheld with their eyes the whole interior of
the church illumined with celestial radiance. One of them,
desiring to know the source of this light, looked through the
window of the church, and saw what seemed to be a burning
torch before the image of the blessed Baptist, who was the herald
of Eternal Light.

1 will relate something else that happened to this holy soul,
worth listening to, in manner as 1 heard it from those to whom

:It is not clear whether the reference is to the Mother of God or to
Emma herself.

2 Ad sponsam. 8 Numerafia devotionts.

Chronicle of Lanercost 31

she related it. While she was yet very young and a novice in
the discipline of Christ, she still sometimes experienced carnal
impulses, and was deluded by tricks of the devil ; yet she could
not be overcome, because she always had the Forerunner of the
Lord as a guardian against the wiles of the Deceiver. Accord-
ingly when she lay sick with a pain in her side, it happened that
John the Saint of God foretold that the serpent would appear to
her in disguise, and he placed in her mouth an exorcism which
should dispel the illusion. No sooner had the saint departed,
than Satan appeared without delay in the guise of a certain
physician, announced his profession and promised a speedy cure.
' But how,' said he, c can I be certain about the nature of your
ailment ? Allow me to lay my hand on the seat of your pain.'

The maiden persisted in declining these and other persuasions,
and exclaimed : * Thou dost not deceive me, oh Lord of Iniquity 1
wherefore I adjure thee by that sacred saying of the gospel — ( the
Word became flesh ' — that thou inform me who are the men
who hinder thee most.' — 'The Minorites,' said he. When she
asked him the reason he replied — 'Because when we strive to
fix arrows in the breasts of mortals they either frustrate us
entirely by their opposition, or else we hardly hit our mark.'
Then said she — ' You have darts ? ' — * Undoubtedly,' quoth he,
'[darts] of ignorance, and concupiscence and malice, which we
employ against men, so that they may either fail in their actions,
or go wholly to the bad, or conceive envy of the righteous/
Then she said — ' In virtue of the Word referred to, tell me how
much the said proclamation of the gospel hindereth your work.'
Then the Enemy, groaning heavily, replied — ' Woe is me that I
came here to-day ! The Word about which thou inquirest is
so puissant that all of us must bow the knee when we hear it,
nor are we able afterwards to apply our poison in that place.'

Since mention has been made here of the protection of S.
Francis being faithfully invoked, I will allude here to two in-
cidents which took place in Berwick, about three years before
the destruction of that town. That same city was formerly so-
populous and busy that it might well be called a second Alexan-
dria, its wealth being the sea and the waters its defence. In
those days the citizens, having become very powerful and devoted
to God, used to spend liberally in charity ; among other [objects]
out of love and reverence they were willing to provide for the
Order of S. Francis, and alloted a certain yearly sum of money
from the common chest for the honourable celebration of every

32 Sir Herbert Maxwell, Bart.

festival of the blessed Francis, and further for the provision
of clothing for the poor friars dwelling in their city, whereby
they fulfilled the double object of charity, and of performing
devout service to the saint who began life as a trader,1 expecting
that even in the present [life] greater profits from trading would
be the result of their costly piety. Nor did their conjecture play
them false nor their hope deceive them, seeing how they in-
creased in riches ; until, as [the hour of] their expulsion drew
nigh, they were persuaded by the suggestion of certain persons
of corrupt mind (who became the source of calamity, not only
to these citizens, but indeed to their whole country) first to
diminish their accustomed charity and then to reduce it by one
half. But whereas Sir John Gray, knight as well as burgess,
who had departed this life many years before, was the promoter
of this charity, God warned the populace of their imminent
danger in manner following.

In the year preceding the Scottish war there appeared unto
Thomas Hugtoun, a younger son of the said knight, the vision
of his father, lately deceased, among the bands of holy friars in a
certain abode of delight, and similar in carriage and dress to the
rest of the Minorites. And, while he recognised the figure of his
father but marvelled because of the change in his condition, the
following reply was made to his perplexed meditations. ' Thou
marvellest, my son, because thou never didst hitherto behold me
attired in the dress of the Minorites ; yet thou must learn hereby
that I am numbered by God among those in whose society I have
taken most delight. Go thou, therefore, instead of me to our
neighbours in Berwick, and summon them publicly on behalf of
God to revive and restore that charitable fund which I had begun
to expend in honour of the blessed Father Francis ; otherwise,
they shall speedily experience, not only the decay of their worldly
possessions, but also the dishonour of their bodies.'

Roused from his sleep, Thomas immediately described to his
townspeople the revelation made to him, urging them to mend
their ways. As they paid no heed to him, events followed in
order confirming the vision ; for first their trade declined, and
then the sword raged among them.

Something else happened testifying to cause and effect and to
the honour of the saint. One of these burgesses, deploring the
disrespect paid to the saint, offered to provide at his own expense,

1 Ex mercatore converse. S. Francis was the son of an Italian merchant trading
•with France, whence the son's name, Francesco.

Chronicle of Lanercost 33

the things necessary for the saint's festival ; which thing he had
no sooner undertaken than he was struck with a grievous malady
affecting his whole body, pronounced by all the physicians to be
incurable. Then the friars having persuaded him to put his trust
in the saint and to hope for recovery, he directed that he should
immediately have all the limbs of his body measured in honour
of the saint, and in less time than it takes to tell it, he sat up
healed, complaining of nothing except a headache. 'And no
wonder ! ' exclaimed his wife, smiling, ' for his head is the only
part of him we left unmeasured.' The line having been
applied again, immediately he was freed from all pain. The
same individual, being delivered a second time, is in good
health at the present time, while his fellow-citizens were cut
in pieces by the sword ; and all this through the merits of
S. Francis.1

On the morrow of the Epiphany2 the clergy assembled in
London to hold council upon the answer to be returned to my
lord the king, who had imposed a tax of seven pence upon the
personality of laymen, while from the clergy he demanded twelve
pence in the form of a subsidy ; which was agreed to reluctantly,
the clergy declaring that, while they would freely submit to the
royal will, they dared not transgress the papal instruction.3 And
thus all the private property and granaries of the Archbishop of
Canterbury were confiscated by the king's authority, even to the
palfreys reserved for the primate's riding ; to all of which this
virtuous man patiently submitted. Also, all ecclesiastics were
deprived of the king's protection, and all their movables given
over to the hands of laymen. Yet was this inconsiderate action
speedily checked by the hand of God ; for there occurred two
calamities on the vigil of the Purification,* [namely] a defeat of
our people in Gascony, where Sir John de Saint-John 6 and very
many others of our countrymen were captured ; also stores pro-
vided for them, and shipped, were sunk in mid-ocean. When

1 See under the year 1285 for another instance of the cure by measuring for
S. Francis.

2 yth January.

*i.e. the Bull of zgth Feb., 1295-6 — Clericoi la'tcos. The papal sanction was
required for any tax upon the clergy.

4 1st February.

5 The King's Lieutenant of Aquitaine. The actual date of his capture was 28th
January. He was released after the treaty of 1'Aumone in 1 299.

c

34 Sir Herbert Maxwell, Bart.

this news was published, bringing much matter of grief to king
and country, a certain just, grey haired man, drawing conclusion
from a similar event, told me what I repeat here.

' In the time,' said he, ' of Henry the father of Edward, when
something similar had been executed in ecclesiastical affairs
throughout the province, on pretext of aid to those who, resisting
the affection of beloved wives and children, had long before set
out to rescue the Holy Land from the Saracens, it happened that
Bishop Robert Grosstete of Lincoln, [a man] beloved of God, was
to perform solemn ordinations at Huntingdon during Lent. One
of the Minorite Order, who still survives greatly aged at Don-
caster, was present there, received ordination, witnessed the
course of events, and describes what took place in the following
manner.

* After mass was begun,' said he, * and the bishop was seated
on his throne, he who had to read out the names of those who
were to be ordained and presented to the bishop, came forward
with the roll ; and whereas he was very slow in reading out the
list, the bishop leaned his head upon the side of the seat, and fell
asleep. Those, however, who were near him, bearing in mind
his fasting and vigils, interpreted the prelate's repose as an omen ;
and it was manifest when he awoke how wakeful had been his
mind during sleep. For after the clergy had waited wondering
for some time longer, he was gently awakened by a certain
secretary, and, as he opened his eyes — * Eh, God ! ' he exclaimed,
' what great evils has this extortion from the Church of God en-
tailed upon the Christians fighting with the Saracens for the rights
of God. For in my sleep I beheld the overthrow of the Chris-
tian host at Damietta and the plunder of treasure unjustly
collected.'

The confirmation of this oracle followed in a few months, when
the sad news arrived of the slaughter of my lord J. Longspee and
others, whereof thou mayst read above.1

Thus spake my informant : it is to be feared what may
happen to funds collected by such pillaging. Nevertheless, the
king did not abate the tax ; yea, he commanded that inquisition
be made, so that in whatsoever place, whether occupied by monks
or other persons, should be found hoards of gold or silver, brass,

1 See the Chronicle of the year 1 249, where the defeat and capture of S. Louis
is recorded. In that passage Longespee is called illustris comes de Longa Sfata.
Excuse for somnolence might have been found in the bishop's advanced age, he
being then in his 75th year.

Chronicle of Lanercost 35

wool, cups, spoons, or other utensils, they should be rendered into
royal ^ossession by marks and inventory ; all which was after-
wards carried out on the morrow of S. Mark's day.1

Holy Writ saith that ' vain are all men in whom is not the
wisdom of God ' ; whereof verily the present times afford proof.
For we know that in these days there hath been found a certain
member of that ancient and accursed sect the Ambigenses, named
Galfrid, who led astray many from the faith and hope of salvation,
as he had learnt from others. For he entered houses and clandes-
tinely taught about destiny and the constellations, disclosing thefts
and mischances, so that in the estimation of weak-minded persons
he was reputed to be something great, whereas in reality, he was a
most nefarious necromancer. Also he took care to dwell and
spend his nights apart, and to lie where he could often be heard
as it were, giving questions and answers to divers persons. He
used to make light of the doctrine of God and to ridicule the
sacraments of the church ; for it was ascertained that during six-
teen years he would neither partake of the Holy Communion nor
witness it, nor afterwards when he was mortally sick did he even
deign to be confessed. This wretched man's errors having fre-
quently been exposed by Holy Church, he was forced to flee
through divers countries and districts, all men driving him forth,
even John of Peckham himself, Archbishop of Canterbury, inter-
dicting him from remaining within the bounds of his diocese, until
at length he stopped at the monastery of Stone in Staffordshire,
being received into hiding rather than to hospitality. After he
had spent his execrable life there for a long time, he fell at length
into a last illness, and not even then would he cease to cling to the
devil who appeared to him, or to say — 4Now thinkest thou to
have me ? or that I will come with thee ? nay verily, for I will by
no means do so.' But on the day of the Purification of the
Blessed Virgin 2 this infamous man was being constrained to leave
the world in deadly torment, when two of the Order of Minorites
turning aside thither stood beside his bed, urging him beseechingly
and gently that he would confess, assuring him of the mercy and
grace of God ; but he persisted in turning a deaf ear to the counsels
of salvation. And when they perceived by his breathing that
he must speedily give up the ghost, they cried aloud in his ears,
bidding him at least invoke the name of the Lord Jesus for the
sake of mercy. They continued their clamour, persisting in
shoutings, yet he never fully pronounced that sweet name, but

1 26th April. 2 2nd February.

36 Sir Herbert Maxwell, Bart.

only with his last breath he twice said feebly, ' Miserere ! ' and so
bade farewell to this life.

At the beginning of Lent so great was the scarcity in Rome,
that the citizens, knowing that the stores of the church were laid
up in the Capitol, broke into the same, and plundered the corn
and salt which they found, forcing their way in with such violence
that sixty of them were crushed to death, after the manner of the
famine of Samaria.1 And because the Pope appointed a certain
senator against their will, with one accord they would have set fire
to the papal palace and attacked the Father of the Church, had it
not been for the exertions of a certain cardinal, who assuaged their
madness and caused the Pope to alter his decision.

On the very day of the Annunciation 2 the council assembled
again in London [to decide] what they would give freely to
my lord the king. But certain of the prelates without
t297' the knowledge of the archbishop, had pledged them-
selves to submit to the secular authority, with whom the Abbot
of Oseney was implicated. When he had presented himself
and the archbishop had kissed him, he [the archbishop] was
informed by the clergy that the abbot, contrary to the will of the
church, had seceded from the unity of the clergy. The arch-
bishop therefore called him back and rebuked him, revoking
the kiss which he had given him in ignorance. He so terrified
the transgressor by the words of just rebuke that, retiring to
his lodging in the town, he suffered a failure of the heart ;
and, while his attendants were preparing a meal, he bade them
recite to him the miracles of the Glorious Virgin, and departed
this life before taking any food. There seems to be repeated
in this man the story of Ananias, who was rebuked by Peter
for fraud in respect of money.

Hardly had a period of six months passed since the Scots3
had bound themselves by the above-mentioned solemn oath of
fidelity and subjection to the king of the English, when the
reviving malice of that perfidious [race] excited their minds to
fresh sedition. For the bishop of the church in Glasgow, whose
personal name was Robert Wishart, ever foremost in treason,
conspired with the Steward of the realm, named James,4 for a
new piece of insolence, yea, for a new chapter of ruin. Not
daring openly to break their pledged faith to the king, they

Mi. Kings vii. 17. 2 25th March. 3Albanacti.

4 Father of Walter Stewart who, by his marriage with Marjory, daughter of
Robert I, became progenitor of the Stuart dynasty.

Chronicle of Lanercost 37

caused a certain bloody man, William Wallace, who had formerly
been a chief of brigands in Scotland, to revolt against the king
and assemble the people in his support. So about the Nativity
of the Glorious Virgin l they began to show themselves in
rebellion ; and when a great army of England was to be
assembled against them, the Steward treacherously said to them
[the English] — ' It is not expedient to set in motion so great a
multitude on account of a single rascal ; send with me a few
picked men, and I will bring him to you dead or alive.'

When this had been done and the greater part of the army
had been dismissed, the Steward brought them to the bridge
of Stirling, where on the other side of the water the army
of Scotland was posted. They [the Scots] allowed as many of
the English to cross the bridge as they could hope to overcome,
and then, having blocked the bridge,2 they slaughtered all who
had crossed over, among whom perished the Treasurer of
England, Hugh de Cressingham, of whose skin William Wallace
caused a broad strip to be taken from the head to the heel, to
make therewith a baldrick for his sword.3 The Earl of Warenne
escaped with difficulty and with a small following, so hotly did
the enemy pursue them. After this the Scots entered Berwick
and put to death the few English that they found therein ; for the
town was then without walls, and might be taken as easily by
English or Scots coming in force. The castle of the town,
however, was not surrendered on this occasion.

After these events the Scots entered Northumberland in
strength, wasting all the land, committing arson, pillage, and
murder, and advancing almost as far as the town of Newcastle ;
from which, however, they turned aside and entered the county
of Carlisle. There they did as they had done in Northumber-
land, destroying everything, then returned into Northumberland
to lay waste more completely what they had left at first ; and
re-entered Scotland on the feast of S. Cecilia, Virgin and Martyr,4
without, however, having been able as yet to capture any castle
either in England or Scotland.

Now before Lent in that year5 the earls and barons of
England prepared themselves for war against the Scots, in the
absence of the king, who was in Gascony, and came upon them

1 8th September. 2 Ponte obturato.

3 Other writers say the skin was cut up into horse-girths.

4 22nd November. 5 1297-8.

38 Chronicle of Lanercost

unawares at Roxburgh Castle, which they were then besieging
with only a weak force. Being informed of the approach of the
English, they took to flight at once ; but the earls remained some
time at Roxburgh, but afterwards with one accord turned aside to
Berwick and took that town. Howbeit, after the earls had left
Roxburgh, the Scots came by night and burnt the town, and so
they did to the town of Haddington, as well as to nearly all the
chief towns on this side of the Scottish sea,1 so that the English
should find no place of refuge in Scotland. Thus the army of
England was soon compelled to return to England through lack
of provender, except a small force which was left to guard the
town of Berwick.

1 Firth of Forth.

(To be continued*}

The History of Divorce in Scotland

r I \HE variety of divorce laws in the United States is a
A favourite subject for observation and animadversion.
Newspaper and magazine writers are fond of pointing out
that in the State of Washington the Court can grant divorce,
if satisfied that, for any cause, the parties can no longer live
together ; that New York has divorce only for adultery ; and
that South Carolina has no divorce at all. We are apt to
forget how great is the dissimilarity between the divorce laws
of England, Ireland, and Scotland. The ignorance of well-
educated people on the subject is astounding. An English
squire, university bred, recently asked me why I had been
made a member of the Royal Commission on Divorce in
England. ' You know,' he gravely said, * you can't have had
any experience ; and this Commission is confined to England.
You have no divorce at all in Scotland. You are like
Ireland ! ' l

Consider how important the differences are : First, in England
and Scotland divorces are granted by courts of law ; in Ireland
the remedy can be obtained only by Act of Parliament. Second,
in England divorce is given only for adultery ; in Scotland
desertion, wilful, without lawful excuse, and so long continued
as to imply a permanent abandonment of the marital relation,
is considered sufficient ground for divorce, being thought to
come equally within the principle enunciated in Shakespeare's
description of adultery, — ' such a deed as, from the body of
the contract, plucks the very soul.' In Scotland it is con-
sidered that not only does desertion, like adultery, involve a

1 A book, elaborate and learned, like that by the late Dr. Luckock, Dean of
Lichfield, entitled The History of Marriage, Jewish and Christian, In relation to
divorce and certain forbidden degrees, may furnish one explanation. He discusses
the laws of the United States and the British Colonies, of Austria, Belgium,
Denmark, Germany and Switzerland; and he never alludes to the Scotch
system, which has stood the test of 350 years' experience, under conditions similar
to those in England.

39

40 Lord Guthrie

breach of an essential condition of the contract, expressed or
implied in marriage, but that it is a repudiation of all its
obligations, both towards the deserted spouse and the deserted
children. If the objects of marriage are companionship and
the procreation of children, while adultery deteriorates or
destroys the first, desertion frustrates both. Third, in Scotland
the sexes are in a position of absolute equality ; in England
a wife cannot, like a husband, get divorce for adultery only,
but must prove, in addition to adultery (i) incest, (2) bigamy, (3)
rape, (4) unnatural crimes, (5) cruelty, or (6) desertion ; a long
list, which, yet, it is admitted, must be added to, if the principle
of inequality is to remain. Fourth, in England, however clear
the adultery of the defendant, the plaintiff, although in no way
to blame for the defendant's fall, may, in the option of the
judge, be deprived of his or her remedy, if he or she has been
guilty of adultery, of unreasonable delay, of cruelty or of
desertion, however unconnected with the subject of the action.
This was also the rule in Scotland from the Reformation to the
end of the seventeenth century ; but, when the point came to be
contested, it was held by the Commissary Court, apparently on
grounds of public policy, that recrimination, or mutual guilt,
however relevant as an answer in a question of separation, was
no bar to divorce, although affecting patrimonial consequences.
The intervention of the King's Proctor in England, an official
unknown in Scotland, is almost always connected with this
disqualification. If the English were assimilated to the Scots
law, that office might be abolished, and cases of collusion could
be left to the Attorney General, as they are dealt with in Scotland
by the Lord Advocate. Fifth, in Scotland, through the operation
of what is known as the Poor's Roll, the remedy of divorce
is available to the poor ; in England, contrary to the manifest
intention of the 1857 Act, it is open only to those who may
be called well-to-do.

There does not appear to be any movement in Ireland for
conferring divorce jurisdiction on the Courts of that country.
The Church of Rome, while it nullifies marriage for many causes
which the Greek Church and all Protestant churches consider
insufficient, holds that marriage, once validly constituted between
baptized Christians, whether celebrated by the Church or not,
is absolutely indissoluble, even by the Pope. The preponderance
of Catholics in Ireland may be one reason for the acquiescence
of the people of that country in the present system, which places

The History of Divorce in Scotland 41

them in the same position as England occupied before the Divorce
Act of 1857.

In Scotland, there is no widespread demand for any substantial
change in the divorce laws, although there is much opinion in
favour of certain minor alterations, and some opinion that the
grounds of divorce should be extended, so as to include some or
all of the following, namely, (i) habitual cruelty, (2) habitual
drunkenness, (3) incurable lunacy, and (4) habitual crime, in addi-
tion to the grounds already existing, namely, adultery and
desertion. It will be observed that in three of these additional
cases, as in the cases of adultery and desertion, there is grave
moral fault ; lunacy often is, but may not be, due to personal
wrong-doing.

In England, the Royal Commission, appointed in 1909, is now
sitting, under the presidency of Lord Gorell, to consider the
whole subject of the law and practice in matrimonial causes in
England. While, however, the terms of the Commission are
general, four main questions appear to be involved, first, as in
Scotland, should men and women, in matrimonial causes, be put
on a position of equality ? second^ as in Scotland, should the
remedy of divorce be made available to the poor, and how can
this be done ? third, as in Scotland, should desertion be made a
ground for divorce, in addition to adultery, and, besides adultery
and desertion, should divorce be obtainable for all or any of the
four other causes above mentioned ? and fourth, should news-
papers be allowed, as at present, to publish the prurient details
of divorce cases, or should publication by them be limited to a
statement of the names of the parties, the nature of the offence
charged, and the judgment of the Court ? Being a member
of that Commission, I shall, of course, confine myself in this
paper to admitted facts, and state no opinions as to what course
ought to be recommended by the Commission, or adopted by the
country, in regard to any of these debatable and much debated
questions.

Manifestly the conditions of the life of the people in Scotland
are nearer those in England than the conditions in any other
country. Therefore it is natural that importance should be
attached to evidence of the actual working in Scotland of laws,
which are now proposed by some to be enacted for England.
Have equality of the sexes, access of the poor to the Divorce
Court, and an additional ground for divorce, namely, desertion,
produced the rush to the Divorce Court, and the deteriorated

42 Lord Guthrie

view of the sanctity of marriage which some predict would be the
effect, if these practices, existing in Scotland for 350 years, were
introduced into England ? An enquiry into practice necessarily
leads to an enquiry into the history of divorce law in Scotland,
to see when it was introduced, by whom, and on what grounds,
and whether its operation has been generally accepted as bene-
ficial by persons of widely different points of view, or whether
there has been, at one or more periods, serious dissatisfaction
with it, and proposals for its alteration or abolition.

Divorce in Scotland is contemporaneous with the Reformation.
Before 1560, the Ecclesiastical Courts granted permanent separa-
tions ; and they declared marriages null, not only as now, because
of nonage, insanity, impotency, prior marriage still subsisting, and
propinquity of relationship, but on other grounds, such as pre-'
contract, sponsorship, and relationship to the fourth degree, to
such an extent that it is declared, in Chapter xiii. of the First Book
of Discipline, that * the parties conjoined could never be assured in
conscience, if the Bishops and Prelates list to dissolve the same.'
But there is no proved case of any departure from the principle
of marriage being indissoluble. In no known instance did they
decree divorce, in the sense of dissolution of a marriage, once
validly contracted, with liberty to remarry. The position is stated
plainly in Archbishop Hamilton's Catechism, which was published
shortly before the Reformation (I modernize the spelling) :

* The bond of matrimony, once lawfully contracted, may not
be dissolved and loosed again by any divorcement or partising,
but only it is loosed by the death of the one of them ; for truly
the partising and divorcing, which Our Saviour says may be done
by fornication, should be understood only of partising from bed
and board, and not from the bond of matrimony ; . . . and, in
the meantime, whosoever marries her, he commits adultery.'

On the Reformation taking place in 1560, divorce jurisdiction
for adultery was exercised by the Church Courts of the
Reformed Church till 1563, and thereafter by the Commissary
Court from its institution in that year down to 1830, when the
jurisdiction was transferred to the Court of Session. Later
statutes assumed the right of divorce for adultery, of which an
Act, passed in 1563, is an illustration. It has this statement:
* Also declares that this Act shall in nowise prejudge any party
to pursue for divorcement for the crimes of adultery before com-
mitted, according to the law.' But no statute authorising divorce
for adultery was ever passed by the Scots Parliament, and the

The History of Divorce in Scotland 43

right to divorce in Scotland on that ground is still a common
law right. When, by the Scots Parliament of 1560, the jurisdic-
tion of the Pope in Scotland was abolished, it was assumed that
the prohibition of divorce for adultery went with it, as a Romish
doctrine inconsistent with Scripture. In the First Book of
Discipline, believed to have been chiefly written by John Knox,
divorce for adultery is stated to be a remedy open to members of
the Reformed Church (Laing's Knox, ii. 248). This is the way
it is put : * Marriage, once lawfully contracted, may not be dis-
solved at man's pleasure, as our Master Christ Jesus doth witness,
unless adultery be committed ; which being sufficiently proved in
the presence of the Civil Magistrate, the innocent, if they so
require, ought to be pronounced free, and the offender ought to
suffer death, as God hath commanded.'1

The absence of a statute, introducing divorce for adultery in
Scotland, has a bearing on an old controversy in England. Down
to the general Divorce Act of 1857, the separate English Divorce
Acts passed by Parliament were, in practice, only obtained in
cases of adultery, although, of course, Parliament, if so minded,
could have passed them for any cause. The parliamentary bills
were not opposed on the ground that marriage was in its nature
indissoluble ; they were dealt with on their merits. And, if
Parliament was satisfied that certain costly preliminaries had been
gone through in the civil and ecclesiastical courts, and that the
guilt alleged was established, the bills were passed into Acts.
But, among jurists, the question has been discussed whether, by
the law of England, there being no courts empowered to grant
divorce, marriage must be considered to have been then indis-
soluble. Dr. Lushington, in his evidence before the Divorce
Commission which led to the 1857 Act, said 'the law of
England having provided no Courts which have the power to
dissolve marriages, it necessarily follows that, by the law of
England, it must be indissoluble.' Yet Archdeacon Paley, in
Chapter vii. of his Moral Philosophy, treating of divorce, talks of
the law of England confining the dissolution of the marriage
contract to the single case of adultery in the wife. Those who
maintained the affirmative strongly founded on the absence of

1 The plain principle was that, if the law of God were carried out, the guilty
person should be put to death, in which case there could, of course, be no question
about the right of the innocent spouse to remarry ; but, if God's law were not
carried out, the innocent spouse ought not to suffer from the State's unfaithfulness
to God's command.

44 Lord Guthrie

any statute authorising divorce. But divorce for adultery has
been granted in Scotland for 350 years, without any statute
authorising the remedy.

Divorce for desertion is in a different position. If it does not
stand on statute, there is a statute, passed in 1573, authorising
it. John Knox died in November, 1572. Calvin, Beza,
Melanchthon, and other Continental Reformers, whom Knox
knew in France, Germany, and Switzerland, favoured divorce for
desertion as well as for adultery, being of opinion that the liberty
of divorce, conceded by St. Paul in the case of a Christian
husband deserted by a heathen wife, must be equally, if not
a fortiori, conceded when the deserter is a Christian. But, as
already mentioned, Knox, in his First Book of Discipline, restricted
the remedy to the case of adultery, which he, and the Reformers
generally, both in Britain and the Continent, were agreed in con-
sidering allowed by Christ. It does not appear whether any
decrees of divorce for desertion had been granted before the statute
of 1573. But at least one process, namely, that of the Earl of
Argyll, Chancellor of Scotland at the time, for divorce on the
ground of desertion against his wife, Jean Stewart, the Countess
of Argyll, half-sister of Mary, Queen of Scots (the lady who
acted as sponsor for Queen Elizabeth at the Catholic baptism
of James VI.), had been begun before the statute was passed.
At an interview at Lochleven, Knox agreed, at the request of
Queen Mary, to endeavour to reconcile her half-sister and the
Earl. He succeeded for the time, but in the end an action
was raised and the Earl got his divorce. It may be that the
statute was thought desirable, because there was doubt as to
whether divorce for desertion was competent by the then
common law of Scotland, and also because it was desired, retro-
spectively, to confirm divorces for desertion which had been
already granted, as well as to make Argyll certain of his freedom.
This is suggested by the action of the General Assembly in
1566. They were asked whether a woman might marry again,
whose husband had departed from her to other countries, and
had been absent for nine or ten years ; and they replied that
she must first produce a sufficient certificate of his death (Book of
the Universal Kirk, Bannatyne Club, i. 80).

The same conclusion seems to follow from the action of
the General Assembly of March, 1573, in connection with the
Earl of Argyll's proposed divorce. The Assembly arranged with
the Earl that certain of the Reformed Churches should be consulted

The History of Divorce in Scotland 45

* upon his lordship's own expenses,' the Assembly to decide in
accordance with the opinion thus obtained (Book of the Universal
Kirk, i. 262). This the Earl seems to have thought better of, and
to have preferred the speedier and more certain course of getting
the statute, which was passed in the following month of April.
The course adopted had the curious result that, when the General
Assembly met in August, James Paton, the titular Bishop of
Dunkeld, one of the members of Assembly, was accused { for
voting in Parliament anent the Act of divorcement lately made,
in prejudice of the Assembly, who had suspended their judgment
in this matter till farther advisement ' (Book of the Universal Kirk,
i. 270). It had also the other curious result, that, in the very
same month of August, the Earl married Jean Cunningham,
daughter of the Earl of Glencairn.

The statute of 1573 runs as follows (modernizing the spelling) :

* At Holyroodhouse, 30 April, 1573. Anent them that diverts
from others, being joined of before in lawful marriage.

* It is found and declared by our Sovereign Lord's, his Regent's
Grace, the three Estates, and whole body of this present Parlia-
ment, that, in all time bypast, since the true and Christian religion
was publicly preached, avowed and established within this Realm,
namely, since the month of August, the year of God 1560, it has
been, and in all time coming shall be, lawful that whatsoever
person or persons, joined in lawful matrimony, husband or wife,
diverts from other's company, without a reasonable cause alleged
or deduced before a judge, and remains in their malicious obstinacy
by the space of four years, and, in the meantime, refuses all privy
admonition — the husband of the wife, or the wife of the husband
— for due adherence [then follow operose provisions for civil and
ecclesiastical procedure, now abolished by the Conjugal Rights Act
of 1 86 1 ] the malicious and obstinate defection of the party offender
to be a sufficient cause of divorce, and the said party offender to
tyne and lose their tocher et donationes propter nuptias.'

The statute professes to be declaratory of the law which had
existed since 1560. The existing records do not enable us to
know whether this was a correct statement, or whether the
phrase was inserted to prevent the suspicion that the statute was
procured by, and passed in the interest of the Earl of Argyll,
on account of the exigencies of his divorce suit. The entries
in the General Assembly records, already referred to, for which I
am indebted to Dr. Hay Fleming, leave the impression that the
question of divorce for desertion was looked at as difficult, on

46 Lord Guthrie

Scriptural grounds, and that, while the statute of 1573 was not
opposed by the Churchmen, it was sprung upon them between
the meetings of the General Assembly, in breach of an agreement
for delay. Lord Fraser, in his Law of Husband and Wife^ volume
ii. page 1208, calls the Earl of Argyll's action ' the proximate
cause of the statute.'

Three suggestions have been made about the Scots law of
divorce, which require consideration.

First, that the law originated in political considerations, and
from motives of public policy, rather than out of regard to the
teaching of Scripture. In view of the constant appeal to Scripture
in Reformation days, in matters much less important than marriage
and divorce, this view would seem difficult to maintain. More-
over, so far as divorce for adultery is concerned, it is inconsistent
with the terms of Knox's First Book of Discipline above quoted, and
so far as divorce for desertion goes, it cannot be reconciled with
the absence of any protest by the Church against the passing of
the statute of 1573, and any effort to seek its repeal. It was an
age when the Church's power was at its height. The Church,
sometimes asked and sometimes not asked, knew no line between
ecclesiastical and civil in the active interest it took in legislation.
Only once is there a possible indication of protest. This is to be
found in an Act of the General Assembly of 1596, in which there
are included, among the common corruptions of the Realm,
4 adulteries, fornications, incest, unlawful marriages and divorce-
ments allowed by public laws and judges ' (Book of the Universal
Kirk, iii. 874). Possibly, but not certainly, divorces for desertion
were referred to by ' unlawful divorcements allowed by public laws
and judges.'

Second, it has been suggested that the Scots Reformers and
legislators did not act on their own independent judgment, but
blindly accepted the views of the Continental Reformers. This is
disproved by the remedy being limited in Knox's First Book of
Discipline to cases of adultery, contrary to the views of most of
the Continental Reformers, and to the later extension (if it was an
extension) being restricted to cases of desertion, although many
Continental Reformers maintained that other causes of grave
moral fault should also be included.

Third, it is sometimes hinted, rather than asserted, that the
result of the change made at the Reformation must have been
to destroy, or at least to impair, the popular sense in Scotland of
the permanency of the marriage tie. Surprise has even been

The History of Divorce in Scotland 47

expressed how, under the Scots law, marriage can be regarded as
a permanent contract. This view ignores the fact that divorce is
a remedy for an abnormal state of matters, arising after marriage,
which is never contemplated by the parties themselves at the time
of marriage, and is never alluded to in the marriage service, any
more than in the marriage contract, if there be one. It is a
remedy for a position which cannot come into existence, except
through the voluntary wrong-doing of one of the parties.
Accordingly, from the Reformation, both Church and State in
Scotland, in unison with the feeling of the people, have dealt with
the relation as a permanent one. After the parties accept each
other as spouses, both Presbyterian ministers and Episcopalian
clergymen always pronounce the words, ' What (or whom) God
hath joined together, let not man put asunder.' The permanency
of the relation between married people is no more impaired by
the existence of reasonable divorce laws than is the permanency
of the tenure of ministers, professors, judges and town-clerks by
the knowledge that, in their deeds of appointment, the words ' ad
vitam' are followed by ' aut culpam.' In no country is there a
stronger sense than in Scotland of the sacredness of the marriage
tie. Divorce may, or may not, be a justifiable remedy for
grave matrimonial wrong, making it reasonably impossible, in
the interests of the innocent spouse and the children, that the
marriage tie should continue. I express no opinion. But
the case of Scotland proves that its existence and enforcement,
for desertion as well as for adultery, does not in any way
deteriorate the public view of the importance and obligations
of the married relation. It may be added that the Scotch
statistics of divorce for both causes (which include a certain
number of cases where the defender, who cannot be found, is,
in fact, dead), furnish no ground for alarm. In relation to the
increase of population, they may be called stationary. The
numbers of divorce cases brought in Scotland from 1898 to
1908 are as follows :

1898 153 1904 193

1899 175 1905 182

1900 151 1906 174

1901 171 1907 203

1902 - 223 1908 201

1903 - 201

Lord Fraser's views in reference to Scotland, expressed at page
1141 of his second volume on Husband and Wife, are still

48 Lord Guthrie

applicable : ' The conjugal relation has stood not less but infinitely
more secure and sacred, since separations a mensa et thoro for
adultery, which were extremely common under the Popish juris-
diction, fell into disuse ; and the number of actions for divorce a
vinculo has, in proportion to that of the population, remained
nearly the same at all periods since the Commissaries were first
appointed in 1563 down to the present time.'

Coming now to post-Reformation times, one observation must
be made. Except during Cromwell's Protectorate, Scotland has
had an Established Church ever since the Reformation, or,
according to some, seven years after it. The Established Church
was Presbyterian from 1560 (or 1567) to 1610, Episcopalian from
1610 to 1638, Presbyterian again from 1638 till Cromwell's
'usurpation,' Episcopalian again from the Restoration in 1660 till
the Revolution in 1688, and since then Presbyterian. From the
Established Church there have been secessions, which have them-
selves suffered internal division. In addition to the Presbyterian
Establishment and Presbyterian dissent, there has been, since
the Revolution, a non-established Episcopalian Church, and also
representatives of those bodies, Independents, Methodists, Baptists,
Quakers, whose chief strength is in England. Yet no attempt
has ever been made either within or without the Established
Church, whatever body was in power, to alter the Scots law, allow-
ing divorce for adultery and for desertion. No complaint has ever
been made of the law being contrary to Christian principle, or
that it tended to weaken the sense of the permanence of the
marriage tie, or that it prejudicially affected public morality
in any other way. All sections of Protestants, — Presbyterians,
Episcopalians, Independents, — have availed themselves of the
remedies provided by the law, and in no case has this led to
ecclesiastical discipline, or to denial of Church privileges, or to
refusal, on the part of ministers or clergymen to re-marry the
innocent party. In two respects, the Church, Presbyterian and
Episcopalian, has co-operated with the State in the administration
of the divorce laws. Every applicant for admission to the Roll
of poor litigants after mentioned has to produce a certificate of
character, etc., and these certificates can only be got from the
minister and elders of the Established Church of the parish
to which the applicant belongs. In addition, by an Act of
1609, the appointment of the judges, who exercised jurisdiction
in divorce and other matrimonial causes, the judges of the Com-
missary Court, was vested in the bishops of the Church of

The History of Divorce in Scotland 49

Scotland, at that time Episcopal, by whom the patronage was
regularly dispensed, until the Revolution in 1688, with, of
course, the exception of the Cromwellian period.

In the iyth century the whole matter was reconsidered.
Fortunately or unfortunately, what is called 'John Knox's
Confession of Faith' of 1560 was superseded by the West-
minster Confession of Faith, which was adopted by the Scots
Church in 1647, and ratified by Act of Parliament in 1690
as part of the * Revolution Settlement.' In that Confession,
framed by the Westminster Divines, numbering 106, of whom
only 8 were Scotsmen, Divorce is thus treated : * Chapter XXIV.
of Marriage and Divorce, Article 5. Adultery or fornication,
committed after a contract, being detected before marriage,
giveth just occasion to the innocent party to dissolve that
contract. In the case of adultery after marriage, it is lawful for
the innocent party to sue out a divorce, and, after the divorce, to
marry another, as if the offending party were dead. Article 6.
Although the corruption of man be such as is apt to study argu-
ments, unduly to put asunder those whom God hath joined
together in marriage, yet nothing but adultery, or such wilful
desertion as can no way be remedied by the Church or Chief
Magistrate, is cause sufficient of dissolving the bond of marriage ;
wherein a public and orderly course of proceeding is to be
observed ; and the persons concerned in it not left to their own
wills and discretion in their own case.'

Appended to these articles of the Westminster Confession are
the proof-texts, from the 5th and I9th chapters of St. Matthew's
Gospel, and from the Epistles to the Romans and Corinthians,
usually founded on in support of these views. No reference is
made to the corresponding passages in the Gospels of St. Mark
and St. Luke, which, by omitting the exception ' save for fornica-
tion,' contained in St. Matthew's report of Christ's words, intro-
duce the Biblical difficulty.

Reading between the lines, it looks as it Article 5, limiting
divorce to adultery, had been originally meant to be exhaustive.
Then seems to have come an amendment to include desertion ;
and the cautiously expressed Article 6 is added, with this view.
Article 5 may have been the work of one of the English members,
and Article 6 an addition proposed by one of the Scotch
representatives. In the 1560 Confession, divorce was competent,
but only for adultery. Seventy-four years, favourable experience
of divorce for desertion as well, had convinced the Scotch

50 Lord Guthrie

Church that the new Confession should include desertion, in
addition to adultery, as sufficient ground for divorce.

Among Scots writers on divorce the most learned was the
great Patristic scholar Dr. John Forbes of Corse, born 1593, died
1648, son of Patrick Forbes, Bishop of Aberdeen. After a
course of study at Aberdeen, Heidelberg, Sedan, and other
Continental universities, he was Episcopally ordained, and acted
as Professor of Divinity at Aberdeen during the Episcopal period.
Deprived of his professorship through his refusal to sign the
National Covenant, and exiled to Holland, because he would not
sign the Solemn League and Covenant, his attachment to
Episcopacy was shown by the sacrifices he made in its defence.
His Latin writings gained Forbes a European reputation, and his
Irenicum amatoribus veritatis et pads in Ecclesia Scoticana was highly
commended by Archbishop Ussher. In his Theologiae Moralis
libri decem^ in quibus precepta Decalogi exponuntur, et casus Con-
scientiae explicantur, which is contained in his collected Latin
writings, published in two volumes at Amsterdam in 1703, he
defends divorce for adultery and for desertion, on scriptural
grounds, and discusses the teaching of Christ and St. Paul, and
the views of the Fathers, and medieval divines and jurists, with
ample citation of authority in Greek and Latin (Book VII. chap,
xiii.). His whole argument is characterized by ability, learning,
and a rare absence of the odium theologicum.

The historian, Dr. Gilbert Burnet, Bishop of Salisbury (nephew
of Sir Archibald Johnston of Warriston, the leader of the so-called
extreme party among the Presbyterians), was born at Edinburgh
in 1643. He was minister of Sal ton for four years, and Professor
of Divinity in Glasgow University for five years, in connection
with the Episcopal establishment. Burnet's views in favour of
divorce can scarcely fail to have been influenced by his Scotch
training, and by his favourable experience of the working of the
Scots system. He says in his Exposition of the Thirty-nine Articles :
* The law of nature or of nations seems very clear that adultery,
at least on the wife's part, should dissolve it. Our Saviour, when
he blamed the Jews for their frequent divorces, established this
rule that whosoever puts away his wife, except it be for fornica-
tion, and shall marry another, committeth adultery, which seems
to be a plain and full determination that, in the case of fornication,
he may put her away and marry another. This doctrine of the
indissolubleness of marriage, even for adultery, was never settled
in any Council before that of Trent. The canonists and school-

The History of Divorce in Scotland 51

men had, indeed generally gone into that opinion. But not only
Erasmus, but both Cajetan and Catherinus declared themselvee
for the lawfulness of it. Cajetan, indeed, used a salvo, " in cass
the Church had otherwise defined," which did not then appear to
him. So that this is a doctrine very lately settled in the Church
of Rome. Our Reformers have had prepared a title in the new
body of the Canon law, which they had digested, allowing marriage
to the innocent party ; and upon a great occasion there in debate,
they declared it to be lawful by the law of God. If the opinion,
that marriage is a sacrament, falls, the conceit of the absolute
indissolubleness of marriage will fall with it.'

On certain minor details there was post-Reformation legisla-
tion. (I do not deal with recent changes in procedure, nor
with the recent Sheriff Court Act, making actions of separation
competent in the Sheriff Court.) On the I9th of March, 1600,
the General Assembly, ' because the marriage of convicted adul-
terers is a great allurement to married persons to commit the
said crime, thinking thereby to be separate from their own lawful
half-marrows, to enjoy the persons with whom they have com-
mitted adultery,' deemed it expedient * that a supplication be
given in to the next Convention, craving an Act to be made,
discharging all marriages of such persons as are convicted of
adultery, and that the same be ratified in the next Parliament '
(Book of the Universal Kirk, Hi. 953). This supplication resulted
in an Act, passed by Parliament on 1 5th November, 1 600, which,
it will be observed, is more limited in its application than the
Assembly contemplated. The Assembly desired prohibition of
all marriages between ' convicted adulterers ' ; the statute only
prohibited such marriages when the name of the paramour
appeared in the decree. In point of fact, the Act has proved a
dead letter, for, rightly or wrongly, the name of the paramour is
never, or almost never, inserted in the ultimate decree. The Act
runs thus: ' yth Parliament of James VI., 1600, chapter 20.
Anent the marriage of adulterous persons. Our Sovereign Lord,
with the advice of the Estates of this present Parliament, decerns
all marriages, to be contracted hereafter by any persons divorced
for their own crime and fact of adultery from their lawful spouses
with the persons with whom they are declared by sentence of the
ordinary judge to have committed the said crime and fact of
adultery, to be, in all time coming, null and unlawful in them-
selves, and the succession to be gotten by such unlawful conjunc-
tions to be unhabile to succeed as heirs to the said parents.'

52 The History of Divorce in Scotland

I close with a reference to the Scots system under which, not
merely in divorce cases, but in all civil suits, those who are
unable to bring actions at their own charges, can obtain justice
without expense, except the cost of witnesses, provided only they
can present a prima facie case. Counsel and agents are provided
for them, and no Court fees or reporters' fees are charged. This
system has no real parallel in England, and largely owing to the
want of it, or of some equivalent, the Divorce Act of 1857 (which
was passed to enable all persons to obtain divorce who could not
afford the large expense involved, even in an unopposed case, in
obtaining an Act of Parliament) has proved a dead letter, so far as
the poor, or even a class who could scarcely be called poor, are
concerned.

Among the old Scots statutes, or, for that matter, the statutes
of any country or period, there are none showing a stronger sense
of justice than the Act of James the First of Scotland, passed in
1424, four hundred and eighty-six years ago, which originated
the present system in favour of poor litigants. Modernizing
the spelling, it runs thus : * If there be any poor creature, for
fault of cunning, or expenses, that cannot nor may not follow
his cause, the King, for the love of God, shall ordain the Judge,
before whom the cause shall be determined, to purvey and get
a leal and wise advocate to follow such poor creature's causes ;
and, if such causes be obtained, the wronger shall assythe both
the party skaithed and the advocate's costs and travail.'

CHARLES J. GUTHRIE.

Letters from Francis Kennedy, Abbey hill, to
Baron Kennedy at Dalquharran, Mayboll

Relative to the seege of EDINBURGH 1745

rTHHE following letters are the property of Mr. John C.
A Kennedy of Dunure, to whom the Editor is indebted
for allowing them to be printed. They had been in the hands
of Mr. Kennedy's family since they were written.

Mr. Andrew Lang, who has seen the proof, writes : " The
author of the letters to Baron Kennedy was a friend of Pickle
the Spy, who alludes to him in his epistles to English officials.
As Mr. Francis Kennedy speaks of * The Prince,' not ' The
Pretender,' it appears that he and Baron Kennedy were not
enthusiastically Whiggish ; Mr. Kennedy reports favourably
about the conduct of the Highlanders in and near Edinburgh ;
and of the military qualities of his Royal Highness. The
4 french minister' mentioned in the letter of October 19 is
M. Boyer d'Eguilles, who represented France in the Jacobite
army. Prince Charles entered England, as he wrote to King
James, with no belief, or very little, in the Earl Marischal's
arrival ' with a very great army from France.' '

The Editor is indebted to Mr. A. Francis Steuart for the
following note with regard to Mr. Francis Kennedy, the author
of these letters.

" Francis Kennedy of Dunure (the writer of these letters)
succeeded his two elder brothers, General James Kennedy of
Dunure, and Thomas Kennedy of Dunure, advocate, a Baron of
Exchequer in Scotland. The latter died ijth May, 1754
(leaving a widow, Dame Grizel Kynnymound, who died 3 Feb.,
1758, aged 70), and his brother Francis was served heir special
in Abbeyhill (whence the letters are dated), with the Manor
place and Brewery in the Parish of South Leith, 29 Jan., 1762.
He did not live long after this, as ' Thomas Kennedy of Dunure '

53

54 Letters from Francis Kennedy

was served heir general ' to his father Francis Kennedy of
Dunure ' 2 October, 1765. The testament of 'Mrs. Isobel
Edmonston, relict of Francis Kennedy of Dunure,' was recorded
at Glasgow, 29 May, 1778."

I

To The Honorable Baron Kennedy,
at his house near Mayboll

When I wrote to my Dearest Brother on Saturday last, the
toun of Edin: was in the utmost Consternation from the Castle
firing down the toun & burning some houses, but as the blockade
is removed people seem a little eased of their terror & enjoy
some more quiet than they did last week, however the Castle still
fyre about the West Port & Grass market & wherever they Spye
any Highlanders, so that the Innocent Inhabitants very often
Suffer in going to places within view of the Castle, where there
may happen at the Same time to be Highlanders, which makes me
think that it would not be very advisable for you to be at Foul-
bridge till the Highlanders are quite gone from this, & when that
may be no body that I see can pretend to tell, most people of
fashion that are not engaged with the Prince are out of town &
every body within reach of the Castle have left their houses, tho
since this last Proclamation its thought they will return to them

when the Highland Army is gone . Im still Confin'd to the

house & know nothing of whats passing but from the newspapers

which Mr A s sends you & what else he can pick up worth

writing, she & her family are still here not thinking it safe
to return to her house as yet, All is safe & well hitherto at Foul-
bridge. I'm still in an undetermined way about my time of leaving
this, for Mr Monro has ordered me some things to buye to make
me easy, & save the trouble of undergoing another painfull
operation which I doubt anything will do. I have sent twice to
enquire after Miss Cathcart who is very well but out of toun with
all her Companions in some place of safety in the Country. I beg
when you see Sir John youl tell him this & make my excuse for
keeping his house so long, all the family here are well & make
their Complements to your Lady & you. I beg mine in the
most affectionate manner & that youl believe me to be ever my
Dearest Brother with the most dutifull Affection Entirely yours.

Abbey hill the 8 Sept 1745

(this letter is doqueted as from Francis Kennedy)

The Siege of Edinburgh 1745 55

II

To The Honorable Baron Kennedy
at Dalquharran near Mayboll

Dear Brother

I got here on Tuesday afternoon very wet & fatigued,
& found your friends here pretty well considering the Allarms
& fears every body are in. this will come to you enclosed in a

letter from Mr A s who is to send you the newspapers by which

youl see the situation we are in here better than it is possible for
me to write, his Wife & family left their house on Tuesday
night & has slept here ever since, & the people in the toun are
removing their things very fast, the Castle having already thrown
some bullets into the toun, one of which fell on Mrs Alvey's
house which made her quit it. she sent back your things to foul-
bridge thinking them safer there than in the toun. I have been in
the utmost torture ever since yesterday afternoon by a return of
my old distemper which has kept me all night from any sleep, so
that Im not in a Condition to write a longer letter. I hope if I
was once free of my pain to set out again soon for Dalq: but at
present Im not able to say any more but to beg my Complements
& all of this family to your Lady & that youl believe me to be
ever with the most Dutifull affection Entirely yours

FK

Abbey hill the 3d Oct 1745

III

I wrote to my Dearest Brother a short line on Thursday last
in very great pain, it is at present not so violent tho Im appre-
hensive I shall be obliged to undergo such another terrible
operation as I suffered two years ago, You are happy to be at
Dalquharran enjoying peace & tranquillity while we are here in a
state of War, for the Castle is in a manner besieged by the
Highlanders who expect, as Im told, to oblige it to surrender by
hindering any provisions to be carryed up to them — & the Castle
for these 4 days past have been fyring all round them upon every

place where they suspected or saw the Highlanders I dont

hear that many are killed on either side, but the Castle has burnt
& beat down houses about Livingstons yeards, the West port, &
Grass market & the Castle hill towards the north Loch as far

56 Letters from Francis Kennedy

down as James's Court & this siege is like to be carryd on till the
Castle surrenders, so you may judge what kind of situation the
Inhabitants both of town & Subburbs are in, & how inadviseable
it is for you to think of coming to toun till things are upon a
more peaceable footing. I dont hear but the greatest care is
taken to hinder the Highlanders from committing any disorders,
& the inhabitants of the toun seem to dread nothing so much as
there leaving Edin: since they have no magistrates to keep the
peace & order of the toun when they are gone, they say there are
some dissentions amongst the officers of the Castle about the
vigorous orders that came to destroy the toun, some for executing
them & others preferring to quit their commissions rather than
do so creul an action, of which last number is Genrl : Guest tho
he persists as strongly as any to defend it to the last extremity,
but you will have a more particular account of what is doing from

A s who is going about to hear what is doing which I cant do.

he will send you the newspapers which dont come out so regularly
as usual. Your Gardner was here today in great fears for your
house because of an allarm he had got that the Highlanders had
threatened to burn all the houses without the west port for
assisting the soldiers that sallied from the Castle to take some of
the people that were lodged in Livingstons yeard to prevent
carrying up provisions to the Castle, but as I dont believe they
will be allowed to do any such thing, I desired him to keep at
home with the maid & keep the doors shut & if any Highlanders
should come to offer any disorder to show them the P s pro-
tection which your neice got & sent out there before I came here.
Lord Kilkerran's house has also a protection which Mrs Murray
got for it, & several other Government people have the same to
preent the disorders that wrong headed people might be ready to

committ, & which Im told the P is very desirous to prevent.

I can hear nothing of Newton so that probably he has gone home
again, all your old Hay is carryd away, there came a message
here on Wednesday from Lord Elcho to Lady Wallace telling her
that he must have your hay for the Prince's use which he would
not take before acquainting her. Smith came afterwards to me
to know what he must do. 1 told him if the person that came for
the hay showed him orders from Lord Elcho, to deliver it but not
otherwise & I doubt if they stay long here the other stack will
go the same way. in these troublesome times we must be content
to make the best composition we can. all the family here desire to
make their Complements to your Lady & you. I beg the same &

The Siege of Edinburgh 1745 57

that you'l believe me to be my Dearest Brother ever with a most
dutifull affection Entirely yours FK.

Abbey hill the 5 Oct 1745

IV

Im told that the P is so hardy & Vigilant that he is like

to kill the most robust Highlander, he lys every night in a tent
no better than the poorest soldier, gos frequently thro his camp
to see that the men have their necessarys rightly provided for
them, in order to give an Example to his officers which they are
not so ready to follow as their Interest, now they have gone so
far, should oblige them to.

I have just now received My Dearest Brothers letter of the
6 Oct : by the Carryer & am sorry to see by it that none of the
3 letters I wrote was come to your hand. It is true 1 got to toun
on Tuesday but so wet and fatigued with the journey that I was
not able to put pen to paper to write to you that night, next day
I was seized with a return of my old distemper & have been
mostly Confined to the house ever since. I wrote you a short line
on the Thursday, a longer one on Saturday & another on Tuesday

thereafter, all which I sent to Mr A s to enclose to you with

the news papers & what other news he could pick up, which he
told me he forwarded duly, so that I hope before now you have
got them, I therein told you that your neice had got a protection
for your house immediately upon the Highlan Armys coming
here which was better than having any Highlanders to protect it
while it was within reach of the Castle since they fired at all of
them they saw, so that your house & everything in it is safe, no
body could tell me anything about Newton so that I believe he
went out of toun before I came to it. I told you in my former
letters how improper & even dangerous it was- for you to come
to toun while the Castle was blockaded, they have retired the
blockade & given over Im told any thought of taking the Castle
since it endangered so much the inhabitants of the toun, & are
come to a resolution on both sides not to fyre but at those that
attack them, so that things are in a more peaceable way than they
were last week & people think that the Army will remove from
this as soon as all their body of highlanders & others are come
here, but how peaceable and safe the toun & subburbs will be after
they are gone is a question I dont yet hear is resolved, so that I
believe it will be best to suspend your journey till you hear the

58 Letters from Francis Kennedy

Army is gone & know what footing people are upon in this place
as to preserving the peace & order of the toun. I was not able
to write to you last night because I had the operation performed
yesterday upon my posteriors, I hope in God it will free me of
any more pain of that kind for the future. I have heard no
manner of news but what we get from the papers which Mr

A s tells me he sends you duly as they come out, which is

not so regular as usual, whenever Im able to ride I purpose to
set out for Dalquharran. All your friends here are well & desire
their Complements to your Lady & you. I beg to make mine to
her in the most affectionate manner & that you'l believe me to be
my Dearest Brother ever with a most dutifull affection Entirely
yours FK

This letter, in the way Im in, has you may easily believe been
no easy task.

Friday Oct the 1 1 1 745

I received only this morning My Dearest Brothers letter
of the 10", & tho' I now put pen to paper to thank you for
it, yet as Im still confined to the house I know ho more nor
so much of whats passing as you do at Dalquharran. the folks
that are in the house with me go as seldom abroad as I do,
so that whatever storys have been told you or wrote about a
certain persons aggreaving frequently at a Certain place must
be false, at least since I have been here so that you need be
in no uneasiness upon that account. The protection that was
got for your house has been very sufficient hitherto & I hear
of no disorders committed on any gentlemans house that had
them, there has been some hay ordered in from all the
gentlemans houses near the toun I hear, but I hear of no
pillaging any where not even at Newliston unless the taking
of horses or arms be such, which they take every where &
chuse to take their hay rather from the rich than the
poor, however if it be true what is told this day that the
Army is soon to leave this I believe there will be no fear of
your new stock of hay. I shall send Sam tomorrow with the
money you ordered for you maid, I hope in a few days to be
able to venture abroad & as soon as I am able to bear riding
•endeavour to get to Dalq: by easy journeys. I have seen no

The Siege of Edinburgh 1745 59

news papers this week for they dont come out as usual. Mrs
Alves went back to her house yesterday. She will send you
what news papers come out, which I shall send word to him
to continue, all the family here are well & desire to offer
their Complements to your Lady & you, I beg mine to her
in the most affectionate manner & that you'l believe me to be
ever with a most dutifull affection

Entirely yours FK
Abbey hill the 15 Oct 1745

Mrs Alves told me your plate was in the Castle & that all
the other things that were removed out of your house to
hers are carried back again.

VI

I wrote to my Dearest Brother on Tuesday last & sent
it to Mr Alves to forward to you under cover of his frank,
I have been seldom abroad since tho' I thank God I grow
better of the ailment, but excessively low spirited, however I
would fain hope that I shall be able to leave this on munday
or Tuesday next, but whether to make the journey on
horseback or to hyre a chaise I have not yet determined, tho'
I believe I shall be obliged to do the last. Things here seem
to be in great quietness & its now talked for certain that the
Prince with his Army will march from this the beginning of
next week, they say they are all in high spirits & very con-
fident of success. There is another ship (besides the one that
brought the french minister) come to a port near Monross
with more money & arms & some officers, they expect to
enter England with a body of men superior to any can be
brought against them, & that Lord Marshall is to land in
England with a very great army from France, this force
togeither with the commotions in London & other parts of
England makes some people think that the dispute will be
decided without much bloodshed, the others dread the contrary,
howevr vast numbers of people of all ranks every day flock
to the Abbey & the number of the Princes friends have
increased beyond most peoples imagination. I pray God Conduct
all in the way that may be most for the good of our country.
I have not yet heard how the toun of Edin: is to be governed
after the Army leaves it, but as it is not to be expected that

6o The Siege of Edinburgh 1745

they will leave any force behind sufficient to guard it against
the attempts of the garrison of the Castle to regain it, it will
probably be left to govern itself. I hope none of your new
hay will be touched & before I leave this I shall desire David
Smith to carry as much of it out as to fill the loft at Foulbridge.
I must refer you to the news papers for any other thing, &
beg to offer my most affectionate Complements to your Lady
& that you'l believe me to be my Dearest Brother ever with
a most dutifull affection

Entirely yours FK

All this family desire to make their Complements to your
Lady & you.

Saturday the 19 Oct: 1745

ft
Roderick Dhu : his Poetical Pedigree

ONE indirect result of the study of sources has been to widen
the canons for legitimate imitation and borrowing, and to
make critics less eager to shout 'Stop the thief when identities
of episode or phrase imply a necessity of relationship between
some part of an author's work and some antecedent performance
by some one else. There is and has always been a ceaseless
re-use of poetical idea, method, and idiom. Without it poetry
would be perilously near to an impossibility. Of course there are
ways of taking which constitute the conveyance into a theft and
deny to the plagiarist the license and excuse of an imitator, but
such distinctions are not the present theme. What is proposed
here is to illustrate by a fine example from Sir Walter Scott how
that brave and genial romancer drew his quota of tribute from an
Elizabethan translator of a sixteenth-century poet, who in his turn
had made levy upon a Latin classic, who in like wise in his time
had made Homer his creditor.

Probably it has occurred to but few, any more than it did to
me, to turn the searchlight of criticism on the question how Sir
Walter came by his Roderick Dhu and Fitz James, and their duel,
always to me a well-remembered and favourite encounter. But
some time ago, when reading Edward Fairfax's rendering of
Tasso, my attention was strongly drawn to certain passages in
that classic of translation, Godfrey of Bulloigne, or The Recoverie of
Jerusalem, Done into English Heroical Verse by Edward Fairefax,
Gent., dedicated to Queen Elizabeth in 1600. The result is a
conclusion indicated by the parallel columns below, showing that
the English poet-translator, who gave models of harmony to
Waller, who was ranked with Spenser by Dryden, and who was
an educative force with the youthful Scott, has an additional claim
upon poetical literature in respect of his part — no small one — in
the framework of the combat between the Saxon and the Gael in
the Lady of the Lake.

61

62

George Neilson

FAIRFAX'S TASSO.
The Egyptian Argantet.

For he was stout of courage, strong of

hand,
Bold was his heart, and restless was his

sprite,
Fierce, stern, outrageous, keen as

sharpened brand. ii. 59.

[There is an altercation, in which

Argantes taunts the crusader Tancred

with reluctance to fight] :
Yet shalt thou not escape, O conqueror

strong
Of ladies fair, sharp death to avenge

that wrong. xix. 3.

[Tancred answers] :
The killer of weak women thee defies.

xix. 5.

[Tancred, in order to settle matters
by single combat, conducts Argantes
through the crusading host to the
appointed place of duel] :

And thus defending 'gainst his friends
his foe

Through thousand angry weapons safe
they go. xix. 7.

[The journey to the place of duel] :
They left the city, and they left behind
Godfredo's camp, and far beyond it

passed,
And came where into creeks and bosoms

blind
A winding hill his corners turned and

cast ;

A valley small and shady dale they find
Amid the mountains steep, so laid and

placed

LADY OF THE LAKE.
Canto V.

Like the Egyptian, Roderick Dhu, as
his name implies, was dark. Mention
is made of his ' sable brow ' (stanza 9).
His 'dark eye' is named in a variant
MS. reading of stanza 14. The
'gloomy, vindictive, arrogant, un-
daunted' Roderick, to quote a reviewer's
description approved by Lockhart (note
to stanza 14), is one in character with
Argantes.

In a like altercation with Fitzjames
Roderick holds the latter's ivalour light

' As that of some vain carpet knight.'

(st. 14.)

He had just told him, too,

* My clansman's blood demands revenge.*

(st. 14.)

Compare Roderick's corresponding
play on the taunt about the head of a
rebellious clan, etc. (st. 12). It is the
same retort.

While not claiming for Tasso or
Fairfax the splendid picture of * Ben-
ledi's living side' — one of the most
gorgeous ever achieved by Walter Scott
or any other poet — one may be per-
mitted to say that the thousand angry
weapons, stilled by request of Tancred,
so that he and Argantes alone may try
their quarrel hilt to hilt, have obvious
possibilities of relation to the pageant
of bonnets and spears, lances, axes, and
brands, of Scott's plaided warriors in
stanza 9.

Along a wide and level green (st. 1 1). . .
The Chief in silence strode before

(st. 12). ..
For this is Coilantogle ford.

(st. ii and 12).
Observe that in both duels there is a

Roderick Dhu : his Poetical Pedigree 63

FAIRFAX'S TASSO.
The Egyptian Argantes.

As if some theatre or closed place
Had been for men to fight or beasts to
chase. xix. 8.

[This was one of Tasso's numberless

adaptations from Virgil] :
Gramineum in campum, quern collibus

undique curvis
Cingebant sylvae ; mediaque in valle

theatri
Circus erat. Aeneid, v. 288.

[The duellists arrive] :

There stayed the champions both with

rueful eyes,

Argantes 'gan the fortress won to view ;
Tancred his foe withouten shield espies,
And far away his target therefore threw.1

xix. 9.

[Description of the combat] :
Tancred of body active was and light,
Quick, nimble, ready both of hand and

foot ;
But higher by the head the Pagan

knight
Of limbs far greater was, of heart as

stout.
Tancred laid low and traversed in his

fight,
Now to his ward retired, now struck

out,
Oft with his sword his foe's fierce blows

he broke,
And rather chose to ward than bear his

stroke. xix. n.

[Throughout this combat Tasso had
in view Virgil's account of the fight

LADT OF THE LAKE.
Canto V.

long march of both men, unaccom-
panied, to the fighting place.

Each look'd to sun and stream and

plain
As what they ne'er might see again.

(st. 14.)

Ill fared it then with Roderick Dhu
That on the field his targe he threw.

(st. 15.)

Observe that Tancred's generosity is
the clear suggestion of Roderick's.

Fitzjames's blade was sword and shield.
He practised every pass and ward,
To thrust, to strike, to feint, to guard,
While less expert, though stronger far,
The Gael maintained unequal war.

(st. 15.)

[Not Roderick thus, though stronger far,
More tall and more inured to war.

MS. variant, st. 15].

1With Fairfax's xix. 9 compare the rendering in John Hoole's translation
referred to infra :

Here both the warriors stopped ; when pensive grown
Argantes turned to view the suffering town ;
Tancred, who saw his foe no buckler wield,
Straight cast his own at distance on the field.

64

George Neilson

FAIRFAX'S TASSO.
The Egyptian Argantes.

between Dares and Entellus. The
prototype of Tancred here is Dares,
that of Argantes is Entellus.
Ille pedum melior motu fretusque

juventa
Hie membris et mole valens.

Aeneid, v. 11. 430-1.]

With a tall ship, so doth a galley fight
When the still winds stir not the

unstable main,
Where this in nimbleness, as that in

might,
Excels ; that stands, this comes and

goes again,
And shifts from prow to poop with

turnings light.
Meanwhile the other doth unmoved

remain,
And on her nimble foe, approaching

nigh,
Her weighty engines tumbleth down

from high. xix. 13.

[Cf. Aeneid, v. 437. Stat gravis
Entellus, nisuque immotus eodem.]

[Argantes and Tancred in grips] :

His sword at last he let hang by the

chain,
And griped his hardy foe in both his

hands.
In his strong arms Tancred caught him

again,
And thus each other held, and wrapped

in bands
With greater might Alcides did not

strain

The giant Antheus on the Lybian sands.

xix. 17.

Such was their wrestling, such their

shocks and throws,
That down at once they tumbled both

to ground. . .
But the good Prince, his hand more fit

for blows,
With his huge weight the Pagan under

bound. xix. 18.

LADY OF THE LAKE.
Canto V.

And as firm rock or castle-roof
Against the wintry shower is proof,
The foe, invulnerable still,
Foiled his wild rage by steady skill.

(st. 15.)

Roderick, hardly fairly, when Fitz-
James has offered quarter, springs at
him.

And lock'd his arms his foeman round.
Now gallant Saxon hold thine own !
No maiden's hand is round thee thrown !
That desperate grasp thy frame might

feel

Through bars of brass and triple steel !

(st. 1 6.)

They tug, they strain, down, down

they go,
The Gael above, Fitz James below.

(st. 1 6.)

Observe that in both combats the
combatants get into hand grips, and
the tall dark man is uppermost when
the wrestlers fall.

Roderick Dhu : his Poetical Pedigree 65

FAIRFAX'S TASSO.

The Egyptian Argantes.

[Argantes grows desperate] :

And with fierce change of blows re-
newed the fray,

Where rage for skill, horror for art, bore
sway. xix. 19.

[Argantes sorely wounded] :

The purple drops from Tancred's sides

down railed,
And from the Pagan ran whole streams

of blood,
Wherewith his force grew weak, his

courage quailed. xix. 20.

[Tancred asks Argantes to yield] :
Yield, hardy knight, and chance of war

or me
Confess to have subdued thee in this

fight.1

XIX. 21.

[Argantes at this grew fiercely indignant] :
And all awaked his fury, rage, and

might,
And said, 'Dar'st thou of 'vantage speak

or think,
Or move Argantes once to yield or

shrink.
Use, use thy 'vantage ; thee and fortune

both
I scorn, and punish will thy foolish

pride. xix. 21, 22.

[Argantes grasps his mighty weapon

with both hands and strikes a heavy

blow] :
His fearful blow he doubled ; but he

spent
His force in waste, and all his strength

in vain,
For Tancred from the blow against him

bent
'Scaped aside, the stroke fell on the

plain.

LADY OF THE LAKE.
Canto V.

Fierce Roderick felt the fatal drain,
And shower'd his blows like wintry rain.

(st. IS-)

But hate and fury ill supplied
The stream of life's exhausted tide.

(st. i 6.)

No stinted draught, no scanty tide,
The gushing flood the tartans dyed.

(st. 15.)

Cf. also ' fatal drain ' and ' exhausted
tide,' quotations supra.

Then yield to Fate, and not to me.

(st. 13.)

Dark lightning flash'd from Roderick's

eye.

Soars thy presumption then so high . .
Homage to name to Roderick Dhu I
He yields not, he, to man nor Fate?

(st. 14.)

Down came the blow ; but in the heath
The erring blade found bloodless sheath.

(st. 1 6.)

Observe that in this, the crisis of each
combat, the deadliest blow of all falls
' on the plain ' in the one case, and in
the other buries itself * in the heath.'
It is a culminating point of many coin-
cidences which are certificates of Scott's
tenacity of recollection, perhaps even
when he was least aware that his

1 With Fairfax's xix. 2 1 compare Hoole :

Yield, dauntless chief, enough thy worth is shown,
Or me or fortune for thy victor own.

66

George Neilson

FAIRFAX'S TASSO.

The Egyptian Argantes.

With thine own weight overthrown to

earth thou went
Argantes stout, nor could'st thyself

sustain.1 xix. 24.

[Tasso was here partly following
Virgil's account of the overthrow of
Entellus. Aeneid, v. 444. But Tasso's
phrase, e si lancib in disparte, receives a
more specific rendering in Fairfax's
* stroke fell on the plain' Scott's ' heath,"
therefore, follows Fairfax's 'plain,' and
does not connect with Tasso's disparte.~\

[A second offer by Tancred] :

The courteous prince stepped back, and

« Yield thee ' cried ;
No hurt he proffered him, no blow he

strake.
Meanwhile by stealth the Pagan false

him gave
A sudden wound, threatening with

speeches brave.

Herewith Tancred furious grew,andsaid,
'Villain, dost thou my mercy so

despise?'2 xix. 25, 26.

This, it will be noted, was the second
tender of mercy or quarter made by
Tancred.

[Tancred, in a later battle, bears his

shield] :

. . his heavy, strong, and mighty targe
That with seven hard bulls' hides was

surely lined. xx. 86.

[The shield of sevenfold hide belonged
to Ajax, but it is needless to urge Tasso's
debt to Homer or to the Aeneid v. 404-5.]

LADY OF THE LAKE.
Canto V.

imagination was running in the leash of
memory. In Tasso and Scott, Argantes
and Roderick respectively collapse, and
fall exhausted with the abortive blow.

Roderick's sword is struck out of his
hand in the fencing, and Fitzjames a
second time tenders him quarter.

* Now yield thee, or by him who made
The world thy heart's blood dyes my

blade ! '

* Thy threats, thy mercy I defy,
Let recreant yield who fears to die.'

(st. 1 6.)

Thereupon Roderick darts at Fitz-
james, and the death-wrestle above
quoted ensues. The whole episode
varies considerably from that in Tasso,
in whose work it follows the wrestle.

Not dissimilar from Tancred's was
Roderick's discarded targe :
Whose brazen studs and tough bullhide
Had death so often dash'd aside.

(st. 15.)

1 With Fairfax's xix. 24 compare Hoole :

A second stroke the haughty pagan try'd ;
The wary Christian now his purpose spy'd,
And slipt elusive from the steel aside.
Thou spent in empty air thy strength in vain,
Thou fall'st, Argantes ! headlong on the plain.

2 With Fairfax's xix. 25 compare Hoole :

Again his hand the courteous victor stay'd ;
Submit, O chief! preserve thy life (he said).

Roderick Dhu : his Poetical Pedigree 67

As regards the use made of Tasso in what may be called the
scaffolding of the great duel scene between Roderick and Fitz-
James, it is right to note that Sir Walter has many learned
annotations and not a few citations of romance in the appendix to
the Lady of the Lake ; but though in Note 3Y he mentions
Ariosto, and hints plainly enough a poetical relationship of Fitz-
James to Zerbino, ' the most interesting hero of the Orlando
Furioso, he tells no tales about Tasso or Fairfax, and throws out
no sign of kinship on the part of his own heroes with Argantes
and Tancred.1

In his unfinished autobiography Scott made repeated references
to Tasso. On leaving school he threw himself into ' irregular
and miscellaneous ' studies. * Among the valuable acquisitions I
made about this time,' he says, * was an acquaintance with Tasso's
Jerusalem Delivered, through the flat medium of Mr. Hoole's
translation.' Through the same translator he was introduced to
Ariosto. Not long afterwards he wrote an Essay, in which he
* weighed Homer against Ariosto,' and gave Ariosto the prefer-
ence. He set himself to Italian, and we know from many
passages in his writings in after life that he made skilful use of
his knowledge of Italian authors, particularly Ariosto. When he
became acquainted with Fairfax's translation of Tasso does not
appear exactly, but the folio edition of 1624 is in the library at
Abbotsford. Fairfax himself is the subject of curious but
appreciative mention in Scott's Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft^
letter viii., in reference to his actively credulous attitude towards
the occult. Under James VI. and L, that ardent enemy of
witches and subtle critic of the powers of darkness generally,
there were of course very many prosecutions. Among them was
one, happily unsuccessful, which (as Sir Walter records) was
instigated against six of his neighbours * by a gentleman, a scholar
of classical taste, and a beautiful poet, being no other than
Edward Fairfax of Fuyistone in Knaresborough Forest, the
translator of Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered*

1 Zerbino, son of the king of Scotland, plays a gallant and considerable part in
the Orlando Furioso from Book XIII., where Isabella reveals her love of him, on to
Book XXIV., where in twenty-two stanzas he dies by the magic blade, * Durin-
dana,' in the hand of the Tartar Mandricard. Scott's footnote (note 3v), above
cited, mentions that James V. ' is generally considered as the prototype of
Zerbino,' and calls upon the readers of driosto to give credit * accordingly for the
amiable features of the prototype reflected in the poetic creation.' The call was
justified, and Scott himself would have been the last to disclaim a converse
obligation on the part of his own lovers to another Italian poet.

68 George Neilson

The blank verse translation by Hoole, with its formal, full-
dress eighteenth-century periods, it is difficult to think of as
stimulating such an imagination as Scott's. It is indeed, as he
said, a flat medium, whereas not only is Fairfax's version a live
poem, which Scott admired, but there are some turns in Scott
where the suggestion of relationship extends to words. The
* rueful eyes ' of Tasso's combatants (xix. 9) (neither equating
Tasso's simple epithet sosptso applied to Argantes, nor Hoole' s
more literal ' pensive grown ') seem to pass almost literally into
Scott's well-known couplet. The second 'Yield thee' (xix. 25)
of Tasso in Fairfax is lost in Hoole, but verbally present in Scott.
And as it was neither in Tasso's own text nor in Hoole's transla-
tion, but only in Fairfax (xix. 24) that the blow ' fell on the
plain/ it is most significant of all that at the like crisis Roderick's
bloodless dagger dies * in the heath.' This be it said, is a most
uncommon, indeed almost unromantic, terminal blow in a
chivalric combat.

The foregoing points, almost all consecutive, common to
Tasso or Fairfax on the one hand and Scott on the other, may for
clearness be here noted and numbered. I. The complexion and
build of Argantes and of Roderick. 2. The altercation and
Carpet-knight' taunt. 3. Safe conduct by the one to the other
for the duel. 4. The march to the place. 5. The * rueful '
glance of the champions before they begin. 6. One combatant
with a shield, the other without ; the shield discarded : ' his target
therefore threw' ; * his targe he threw.' 7. Tancred's lithe, active
fencing, like Fitzjames's. 8. The strength of Argantes and
Roderick. 9. Argantes, like Roderick, heavily wounded and
bleeding. 10. The wrestle ; the grip of Argantes described, like
the grip of Roderick ; the fall ; Tancred, like Fitz James, below.

1 1 . A desperate culminating stroke by Argantes, as by Roderick.

12. The blow falling wide 'on the plain,' 'in the heath.' 13.
Two separate offers of peace or mercy by Tancred (c Yield thee ')
as by Fitzjames. 14. Resentment of Argantes, as of Roderick,
at the suggestion. 1 5. The abortive blow leaving Argantes and
Roderick both prostrate.

So in the page of Scott we can count some of the birthmarks
of Roderick Dhu, rejoicing the more in our Fairfax and our
Tasso, perhaps recognising more clearly than before the vivifying
imagination and realising power of Scott, who indeed borrowed,
but nobly bettered what he borrowed, at every turn of the well-
told tale. He poured blood anew into the arteries of the some-

Roderick Dhu : his Poetical Pedigree 69

what pallid combatants of the Italian poet. So far does Scott's
creative sense transcend Tasso's that in this duel Scott almost
seems to absorb Tasso, and yet give no sign of the fact, so perfect
is the assimilation, so living are the new figures of romance. The
rod of the mightier magician has swallowed that of the less, but
the incorporation remains a glory of Tasso, a proof of the eternal
affinity of the poets, a beautiful type of imaginative tradition and
the unity of literature.

GEO. NEILSON.

Reviews of Books

THE SCOTTISH STAPLE IN THE NETHERLANDS : an Account .of the Trade
Relations between Scotland and the Low Countries from 1292 till
1676, with a Calendar of Illustrative Documents. By M. P. Roose-
boom. Pp. x, 237. Calendar of Documents CCXXXI. With Illus-
trations. Royal 8vo. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff. 1910. 155.
nett.

SCOTCH students will welcome this very useful and business-like volume,
in which some two hundred and thirty pages of a summary of the Staple
history is followed by another two hundred and thirty pages of documents
taken from various sources in Holland, Flanders, and Scotland. The
method is simple, direct, and thoroughly well carried out, and the book
will be a valuable aid to the history of Scottish commerce.

Mr. Rooseboom has confined himself within definite limits, and it is
not in any spirit of criticism that we venture to point them out. His main
thesis is the course of negotiation in the Netherlands for Staple privileges,
and there is no attempt to give any account of Scotch trade either as to its
merchandise or its development. Nor is there any mention of the con-
temporary settlements of Staplers or Adventurers from England in neigh-
bouring ports to those chosen by the Scotch. Yet we can hardly doubt
that the Scotch sale both of wool and cloth must have played a considerable
part in the commercial conflicts that arose when England in her new
industrial policy was endeavouring to push her cloth in the Netherlands,
and as a consequence to limit the supply of wool. The English effort to
seize the market was in full force at the end of the fifteenth century and
throughout the sixteenth century, and thus covered the time when the
Scotch negotiations as to their own Staple town were of the most com-
plicated kind. These conflicts, and the rise of a powerful class of protected
manufacturers in England, must have profoundly affected the policy of
traders as shrewd and active as the Scotch ; and the outline given by Mr.
Rooseboom's documents will need to be filled up by later students.

Mr. Rooseboom speaks of a trade with Flanders in raw wool carried
on by the monks of Melrose and of Scone in the twelfth century. This
commerce was probably of very early date. For example in the seventh
century an English noble, Egbert, who had gone on pilgrimage to Ireland
and there made a vow never to return to his own native land, desired to go
as apostle to the Frisians, then the chief trading people of the northern
seas. His project was to sail round Britain and start for Frisia without

70

Rooseboom : Scottish Staple in Netherlands 7 1

touching England, which meant either that he must take a trading ship
direct from Ireland or start from an Alban port. His proposed voyage,
and the interest taken by the Northumbrians of that time in the Frisians,
seems to imply some intercourse with that mercantile and sea-faring people.
Mr. Rooseboom speaks of a medieval trade in raw wool only between
Scotland and Flanders, but there was certainly a trade in Scotch cloth in
the thirteenth century, and probably long before. In 1282 it was ordered
in Flanders that English cloth should be marked with three crosses, Scotch
with two, and Irish with one ; and there are other references to Scotch
trade in the valuable collection which contains this notice — Espinas and
Pirenne^ Recueil de documents de I 'Industrie drapiere en Flandre. Brussels,
1906 — a collection which is not quoted in this book. The absence of
special mention of cloth in the charters quoted by Mr. Rooseboom does
not imply that there was no such trade, since they are all drawn up in
general terms, allowing freedom to merchants and merchandise without
special description. The few extracts from Acts of Parliament given are
after 1526, and relate only to the Staple towns. To complete the lessons
indicated by this book it would be necessary to examine not only statutes,
but every source which could throw any light upon economical conditions
in Scotland and on the growth of its industries.

Mr. Rooseboom's picture of Scotch trade in the Netherlands during the
sixteenth century shows a world of keenest commercial rivalry. The earlier
Scotch merchants had their centre at Bruges ; the final effort of Bruges in
1407 to secure the monopoly of their commerce happened in the same
year as the grant by Antwerp to the Adventurers of a house in perpetual
succession. This is one of the many coincidences which do not enter into
this book, but might throw light on the Netherlands policy. From a
declining Bruges the trade passed in a few years to Middelburg, and thence
to Veere, where it was to remain for some two hundred and fifty years.
Antwerp bid for the Scotch Staple in 1539, offering lavish privileges.
Middelburg immediately competed with offers as rich and full as those
of Antwerp, and for the next twenty years kept on renewing its tempta-
tions to the Scotch merchants. In 1545 Bruges joined in the rivalry to
secure the coveted Staple, all the towns outbidding one another in offers of
privileges. But Maximilian of Burgundy distanced them all in his offers
and secured the continuance of trade in Veere. New negotiations opened
in 1578 with demands for an honourable and commodious place to be
appointed for preaching and prayers according to the Scotch religion, and
that the Scotch should have jurisdiction in criminal cases over all the men
of their own nation. Everything asked for was given, and Veere again
secured the monopoly. A new controversy in 1611 between Veere and
Middelburg for the Scotch Staple was decided again for Veere in 1612 on
terms of extraordinary liberality for the Scotch. Once only did the Staple
remove from Veere, when it was carried to Dordrecht in 1 668, only to
return, after a limited and struggling existence, to Veere in 1675. The
Scotch may perhaps not have cared for the proximity of the English
Merchant Adventurers, established at Dordrecht since 1655.

The keenness of competition shows the wealth and importance which

72 Rooseboom : Scottish Staple in Netherlands

attached to the Scotch trade at that time. There is mention of a fleet of
seventeen ships from Scotland with merchant goods, besides three or four
hundred persons, merchants and sailors, who had to be provided lodgings
in free nouses according to contract. A document of the merchant
burgesses of the Free Royal Boroughs of Scotland and traffickers to the
Low Countries in 1642 bears four hundred and forty-nine signatures.
And in 1639 Cunningham, a Scotch merchant at Veere, was able to supply
the Scottish army with * 12 great brazen cannon, 49982 Ibs. weight of
cannon-ball, 15673 Ibs. of match, 15416 Ibs. of saltpetre, 6965 swords
and 52 pairs of pistols ' ; and three years later to send over for the
subduing of Ireland '6000 muskets, 4000 pikes, 10000 swords, and 10000
swordbelts.' The trade in Scotch plaids, kerseys, and cloth had so increased
that two measurers were appointed instead of one. Under James VI.
weavers were smuggled over from Leyden and Amsterdam to start the
manufacture in Scotland of the finer kinds of cloth. The Scotch no doubt
were shrewd bargainers and keen business men. Their community main-
tained a close connection between theology and trade. The minister
appointed to the church at Veere had his post and duties as official of the
Staple ; besides his relations with the elders and deacons, he was a police
officer under the direction of the Conservator, and as such obliged to
keep an account of all goods arriving from Scotland, and to collect the
dues not only for his own stipend but for the Conservator's salary. Scotch
thrift gave offence on the continent. The inveterate custom of the
merchants to leave their best garments at home, and travel in their evil
and worst clothes to the dishonour of Scotland, brought down on them
an order, repeated in 1529, 1532, and 1565, that if they had not proper
apparel in the Netherlands the Conservator should have fit clothing made
for them, and pay himself out of their goods. The merchant was for-
bidden, too, to carry home his own wares, but must hire some other to do
it ; and if he bought his meat in the market he might not bring it home
in his sleeve or on his knife's point. The Scotch trader was evidently
1 not slothful in business.'

The result of the union of Scotland and England in 1603 was to
check the competition of Scotland in the foreign trade by closing her
independent relations with any foreign country and her power of separate
commercial legislation. It was in vain that the Scotch towns attempted
to secure that the Conservator, or supervisor of their trade in the Nether-
lands, should be elected by the boroughs and not nominated by the
king, now the king of England. In the course of the next half
century the Conservator in Veere became more and more a political
agent of the English king, and scarcely in any sense a representative
of the Scotch boroughs. The boroughs were even forced to yield
to the pressure of James in the matter of the ministers banished from
Scotland for religion's sake, who had taken shelter in the Low Countries,
where the merchants of Veere were accustomed to provide them with the
means of living : they agreed to restrain that * impertinent and undutiful
supply.' It was an uneasy life for traders, pressed on one side by the
severity of James, who required a testimonial from every passenger or

Fisher : Frederick William Maitland 73

merchant taking ship for Scotland that he was a professor of the true
religion established in Scotland; and on the other side by the military-
despotism of Spanish generals, who ordered the quartering of soldiers on
the free houses of the Scotch, whether they were Catholics or not. But
the financiers of the Netherlands were destined to play a considerable part
in later English complications.

It is to be hoped that this book will prove the beginning of new
researches as to Scotch industry at home, and the intercourse of her people
with Europe.

ALICE STOPFORD GREEN.

FREDERICK WILLIAM MAITLAND, DOWNING PROFESSOR OF THE LAWS OF
ENGLAND. A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. By H. A. L. Fisher. Pp. 179.
With Frontispiece. Demy 8vo. Cambridge: University Press. 1910.
55. nett.

IN a volume of less than 200 pages, Mr. Herbert Fisher has paid an
admirable tribute to the memory of his distinguished brother-in-law. His
sketch is perfect in tone and tact, and is written with both rare literary
felicity, and a restraint that, if anything, is almost excessive. All that Mr.
Fisher has attempted to do he has accomplished most successfully. He has
given a most vivid and lifelike sketch of Maitland's singularly brilliant and
charming personality which, with all its brevity, is yet full enough to give
even those who have not the advantage of knowing Maitland, a clear, if not
a very coloured, conception both of his attractiveness and of his greatness.
He has set forth in order the simple incidents of the scholar's life and career,
and analysed the chief conclusions of his various books. He has been at
great pains in making us realise Maitland's point of view, not only in
relation to the medieval studies in which he won enduring fame, but also
as regards the very numerous political, academic, and speculative matters in
which Maitland had a keen interest and decided opinions.

Altogether, Mr. Fisher has written the model of a scholar's biography.
It is perhaps the only appreciation of a scholar of our times of which we
can honestly complain that it is too short. In particular, we wish that Mr.
Fisher had been able to give us more of Maitland's own letters. The few
that he has printed have all the charm and vividness of Maitland at his best.
We could have wished also that Mr. Fisher had been able to add a little to
his personal touches, and in particular to tell us a little more of Maitland's
table-talk. There are few scholars who were privileged to enjoy his
acquaintance who have not derived from their personal intercourse with him
a fresh stimulus and a new insight into their work. If Maitland did not
found a school in the sense in which a German or French professor founds
a school, it is not too much to say that all medieval students who read his
books, and talked to him about the subject which he knew so well, were in
a very real sense his disciples. That he did not attempt to found a school,
is surely to be set down to the ill-health which forced him to consecrate
his little strength to his individual work, and not to his acquiescence in the
rather conventional view of the ' climate of an English University ' being

74 Fisher : Frederick William Maitland

unfavourable to historical technique, wherein we see the note of the Oxford
tutor rather than the mind of the Cambridge professor.

There is only one serious complaint that can be made as regards Mr.
Fisher's excellent book. It is, we think, to be regretted that he has made
no attempt to appreciate the permanent contribution which Maitland has
made to the study of English medieval history. As an expositor of what
Maitland set out to do, as an analyst of what Maitland thought and wrote,
Mr. Fisher leaves nothing to be desired. But only in one or two vague
and general sentences does he aspire to be critical. Maitland was one of
the greatest scholars that England has ever seen, and probably possessed a
brighter and keener intellect than any other scholar who, with adequate
equipment, consecrated his life to unravelling the story of England's early
history. He was so great a man that he had a right, like Oliver Cromwell,
to demand of those who would paint his picture that they should paint him
truly like himself, and * remark all the roughnesses, pimples, warts, and
everything.' Such a picture of Maitland has not yet been painted. It is
certainly not to be found either in the undiscriminating eulogy which
Mr. A. L. Smith printed two years ago, or even in the present more
balanced volume. It may well have been that Mr. Fisher thought his
personal connection with Maitland was too close to make him the man to
do it. It is probable also that such a reasoned appreciation can only come
from a scholar whose chief life-work, like that of Maitland, is devoted to
the study and exposition of the unpublished records of the English Middle
Age. It is not, however, quite an adequate tribute to the memory of a
very great man to be content with summarising in a few sentences his chief
published conclusions without indicating the extent to which they are dis-
putable, or even the extent to which Maitland himself recognised their
provisional character. For Maitland, like everybody else, had the defects
of his qualities. Sometimes his temperament drew him, as Mr. Fisher
himself points out, 'too far on the path of scepticism.' Sometimes his very
fixed and clear-cut convictions impaired his sympathy, or limited his interest.
There were whole fields of medieval English history which hardly existed
for him. Often the very quickness of his intelligence, his extraordinary
delight in analogies and allusions, the facility with which he would take a
hint suggested, perhaps, by his reading in quite different fields, led him to
over emphasis, or to the neglect of the proper qualification of the doctrine
that he was expounding.

Thus Mainland's study, let us say, of Dr. Keutgen's learned and
scholarly work would at once suggest to him the question whether
there was not something to be said for the * garrison theory ' as a
possible explanation of the origin of the English borough. Every
one knows with what brilliant ingenuity he put together the English
evidence on this subject in Domesday Book and Beyond. There is
little doubt that he went too far, and he confessed so much in a
note to Township and Borough, and freely admitted in conversation and
private correspondence that he was a little shaken in his faith. It is just
the same with his attractive doctrine that the Domesday manor was the
unit of geld assessment. To Mr. Fisher now, as to Maitland then, this

Fisher : Frederick William Maitland 75

view is rightly ' an ingenious hypothesis,' but it would have been as well to
add that it is a hypothesis which is regarded as tenable by but few scholars.
Similarly, as regards Maitland's doctrine that the Domesday hide contained
1 20 arable acres, we should remember not only the larger hides of the south-
east, which of course support Maitland's general theory of the nature of
the Anglo-Saxon settlement, but also the clearly proven small hides of south-
western Wessex, which can only be properly explained on Maitland's lines
by the distinction subsequently developed by Prof. Vinogradoff between
the ' fiscal hide ' and the hide as a unit of land measurement.

It was clearly not Mr. Fisher's business to elaborate the lines of criticism
here suggested, but had he even briefly indicated their substance, or had he
so much as added to his bibliography references to such criticisms of
Maitland as have been written by Miss Bateson, Mr. Round, and
Prof. Tait, he would have done something towards indicating those

* warts and roughnesses ' in Maitland's historical methods which Maitland
himself would have been the first man to recognise and desire to be recorded.
Even a man of Maitland's calibre cannot be expected often to attain that
scientific certainty of demonstration attained in his refutation of the
doctrine of Stubbs that Roman Canon Law was not recognised as binding
on the ecclesiastical courts of medieval England. However, Mr. Fisher
goes much too far when he says that * the case for the legal continuity of
the church of England was demolished by Maitland,' though he certainly
destroyed an argument on which many upholders of the doctrine of

* continuity ' placed very great reliance. Yet we may accept Maitland's
demonstration, and even give general adherence to the doctrines expressed
in his wonderful contribution to the Cambridge Modern History without
quite endorsing Mr. Fisher's judgment that Maitland brought a
4 thoroughly impartial mind ' to a task which, however unwillingly under-
taken, he discharged with manifest enjoyment. Mr. Fisher apparently
holds the quaint conceit that theological detachment is the condition of
impartiality, as if it might not have its own partisanship, quite as dangerous,
and nowadays almost as common, as the partisanship of the churches. We
should not allow our admiration for this great scholar to lead us to regard
him, as many of us were taught a quarter of a century ago to regard Stubbs,
as an almost infallible exponent of history from whose judgments and
methods there could be no appeal.

It is to be regretted that the book has no index.

In conclusion, let us thank Mr. Fisher once more for the manner in
which he has discharged his labour of love. Whatever reason we may have
to supplement any of his statements, there is absolutely no cause for travers-
ing them. He may be warmly congratulated in having shewn us — and
that we feel sure he will regard as the real object of his task — not only the
eminence and originality of Maitland, but also the charm and beauty of his
character, as well as the passionate love of truth, the courage, the heroic
struggle against disease, the sympathy, and the modesty, of the great man
who crowded into a short life of broken health more distinguished achieve-
ment than was attained by any other historian of his generation.

T. F. TOUT.

76 Corbett : The Campaign of Trafalgar

THE CAMPAIGN OF TRAFALGAR. By Julian S. Corbett. Pp. xvi, 473,
with Charts and Diagrams. 8vo. London : Longmans, Green & Co.
1910. 1 6s. nett.

IT is hardly an exaggeration to say that if there had been no battle of
Trafalgar the naval campaign of 1805 would be very much better under-
stood than it is. That most people have thoroughly erroneous ideas about
it is partly because the true relation of the battle to the campaign is not
grasped, and partly because Nelson's share in the campaign, invested with
the special interest attaching to his personality, has unduly eclipsed the
work of other men who, like Barham and Cornwallis, really played greater
parts. The most conspicuous naval victory gained by England over
the combined forces of France and Spain, the crowning moment in
Nelson's career, to some extent the decisive battle of the Napoleonic
wars, inasmuch as the destruction of the largest portion of his fleet
made it impossible for Napoleon to revive his schemes for the invasion
of England, and so drove him to have recourse to the ' Continental
System' and all that it involved, Trafalgar was nevertheless merely the
epilogue to the campaign of 1805, so far at least as that had as its
object the invasion of England. That great project to which Napoleon
had devoted so much thought and labour only to be countered by his
less famous opponents with no less ingenuity and a much more accurate
appreciation of the essentials of naval strategy, had been foiled two months
before Trafalgar, and it is not that battle but Calder's action of July 22nd
off the Spanish Finisterre, tactically incomplete though it was, which has the
best claim to be called the decisive blow of the campaign as far as concerned
the invasion of England. To students of naval history, these points are
familiar enough ; but it is to be hoped that Mr. Corbett's admirable account
of the campaign, told with all his vigour and vividness in narrative and all
his lucidity in argument and exposition, will do much to make the true
version of the story more universally recognised. And while Nelson's work
is in no danger of being undervalued, certainly not by Mr. Corbett, it is high
time that adequate justice should be done to the even greater services of
Barham and Cornwallis, to say nothing of lesser men. But this is just what
Mr. Corbett's study of the campaign does. It goes without saying that he
has availed himself of the great mass of materials, published and unpublished,
dealing with the naval side of the campaign, but what is of special value is
that he has brought the naval events into their true connection with the
military and the diplomatic, and that the different features of the story are
arranged in their proper proportion.

One is accustomed to expect something new in Mr. Corbett's books, not
merely new facts brought to light by his researches, but new constructions
put on old facts and new solutions of old puzzles. His wide knowledge, his
ingenuity and his insight help him to bring fresh light to bear on the most
familiar points, and it would have been surprising indeed had he not found
reason to call for a reconsideration of some of the salient features of the
Trafalgar campaign. His most important new contention is that one should
not regard the campaign, as one of mere defence against invasion, not as a
merely naval campaign, but as essentially offensive and closely connected

Corbett : The Campaign of Trafalgar 77

with the development of the Third Coalition. Among the schemes
under discussion by the Allies was included the expulsion of the French
from Southern Italy by a joint Anglo-Russian force. England's contri-
bution to this project was the force under Sir James Craig, some 6,000 to
8,000 strong, which sailed for the Mediterranean early in 1805, and, after
various perils on the way, an episode well told by Mr. Corbett, ended by
occupying Sicily on the collapse of the Coalition after Austerlitz and
maintaining its hold on that island till the conclusion of peace in 1814.

According to Mr. Corbett this combined action with Russia is the key
to the events of the year. He regards all Napoleon's plans for a naval
combination to give him command of the Channel as wholly impracticable
(p. 15), as a desperate attempt to free himself from the toils Pitt and the
Czar were weaving round him, in the hope that the threat of an invasion
would cause England to keep her troops at home and paralyse her proposed
offensive. This is certainly a view of the case for which there is much to
be said, but one cannot help feeling that Mr. Corbett goes a little further
than is quite reasonable. He is much too positive about the hopelessness of
the invasion to be altogether convincing. Admitting that Napoleon
failed to grasp the great difficulties of wind and tide and that the
arrangements for the invasion were never quite completed, still he had
achieved many of his greatest successes by attempting things which his
enemies had believed impossible. There is nothing in the version which
ascribes all the luck to the English, and represents Napoleon's non-success
as an inexplicable marvel. The chances were certainly very much in our
favour, but there is a great difference between the ' most unlikely ' and
the * impossible,' and if we had not had strategists like Barham and
Cornwallis to direct the operations of a strong and thoroughly efficient
fleet Napoleon's discomfiture might not have been such a certainty: the
favourite does not always win. But, quite apart from this there is
another caution to be urged against accepting in full Mr. Corbett's
estimate of Craig's expedition. One cannot overlook its numerical
weakness, even when one allows for its possibilities as an 'amphibious'
force. Despite Mr. Corbett's comments on it, there is a good deal in
Napoleon's criticism : ' plans of continental operations based on detach-
ments of a few thousand men are the plans of pygmies.' The lesson of the
Seven Years' War is that mere diversions cannot produce any decisive
effect, there must be something substantial behind ; as Mr. Corbett himself
has shown their efficacy lies more in the threat than in the perform-
ance, and a threat with nothing behind it is of a short-lived efficacy. Pitt
did attempt a true counter-stroke after the abandonment of the invasion, not
with Craig's little force but with the much larger and equally little-studied
expedition to the Weser under Cathcart, which was ruined by the pre-
cipitation of the Czar in fighting prematurely at Austerlitz and by the fatal
delays and hesitation of Prussia, though it must also be allowed that it would
have had a better chance had it landed a month earlier. However, while we
should still regard the foiling of Napoleon's invasion-project as really more
important than the counter-stroke with Craig's force, Mr. Corbett has
certainly made out a clear case for his theory that it was this counter-

78 Corbett : The Campaign of Trafalgar

stroke which led to the actual battle of Trafalgar. But for the need
to do something to check this Anglo-Russian attack on Naples, there
would have been nothing to make the French quit Cadiz and give Nelson
the chance to bring them to battle. Otherwise they might have remained
quietly on the defensive in Cadiz, imposing on the English the difficult and
exhausting task of keeping up a blockade. A passive defensive inside a well-
protected port was, as Mr. Corbett has shown, the strategical alternative
which the French always found most effective as a reply to the naval
supremacy of England, and unless some stroke such as Craig's expedition
could be struck at a vulnerable point it was bound to produce a deadlock.

Seeing then how important Sicily was as the key to the diplomatic and
strategical situation in the Mediterranean, not merely being essential as the
source of supply for our fleet but providing a point where England might
have given the Coalition effective aid on land, one criticism often directed
against Nelson must be modified. He is charged with having left the
Straits open to Villeneuve through undue over-anxiety for Sicily and Sardinia.
Mr. Corbett shows that this was in accord with his instructions, and he
approves of his action in not leaving the position in which he covered those
islands until he had positive intelligence of Villeneuve's course (p. 60). Yet
one hardly feels inclined to make quite as light as Mr. Corbett does of the
risks of leaving the Straits open (p. 55). Of course his whole view is coloured
by his conviction that there was no serious danger of invasion, and that the
projected offensive was the more important consideration, but one must
point out that the special feature which governed the strategical situation
was the inefficiency of the Allies. Their unreadiness to face a pitched
battle was the true guarantee against invasion and Nelson's justification for
leaving the Straits open. Had they been able to face the English on equal
terms with as good chances of success as the French fleets had between
1778 and 1783, Nelson's strategy would have been most dangerous, both in
leaving the Straits open — it is a little strained by the way to speak of Nelson
as having < driven Villeneuve through the Straits' (p. 97) — and also in
returning to Gibraltar from the West Indies instead of making for Brest
and Ferrol. Mr. Corbett does not discuss the route taken by Nelson at any
length, but the chart certainly suggests that had Nelson made for either of
those ports he must have fallen in with Villeneuve on the way. Certainly
had he not left so many frigates in the Mediterranean he would have had
a better chance of locating Villeneuve either in the West Indies or in Mid-
Atlantic. But especially in view of what Mr. Corbett says of the tradition
of concentrating on the Western Squadron, it does look as if Nelson was
wrong in making for Gibraltar. It was not for the Mediterranean that
Villeneuve was likely to be making, but for one of the ports where he
would find another detachment of the Allied fleet. The return to the
Straits was taking Nelson well out of the way to do any effective service
while the crisis was being decided elsewhere. Luckily Villeneuve's fleet
was not battleworthy enough to beat Calder or to attempt to come up to
Brest even when re-enforced by the Ferrol ships. It was the inability
of the Allies to face even weaker forces with any prospect of success
that was at the root of their failure, though one must remember that

Corbett : The Campaign of Trafalgar 79

in discussing attempts at co-operation between a blockaded squadron
and would-be relievers one must keep clear of the analogy of a besieged
fortress by land where the relievers can almost always count on the
garrison co-operating (p. 133). At sea this is not the case. The wind
that was fair to bring Villeneuve up would keep Ganteaume from coming
out, and so the separate portions of the Allied fleet would be exposed to
defeat in detail. And Mr. Corbett makes a good point when he shows
(pp. 1 80 and 189) how the dangers of opening a port for a short period, as
Cornwallis did from July I2th to 24th, were not as great as they might
appear. As he shows (p. 192), even if Ganteaume had ventured to come
out while Cornwallis was standing to the westward on the chance of meet-
ing Villeneuve, the chances were all against his escaping disaster if he
entered the Channel.

The tradition of concentrating on the Western Squadron is a point of
which Mr. Corbett makes a good deal. He shows that Orde's action in
doing this when driven off from Cadiz by Villeneuve, a step somewhat
vehemently and hastily condemned by Nelson, was not only fully in accord-
ance with the established rule of the service, but exactly anticipated the orders
Barham was drafting for him (p. 64). But one cannot follow Mr. Corbett
in his statement that the blockade of Brest was merely * incidental ' to the
work of the Western Squadron in * holding the approaches to the Channel/
The all-essential task before the Western Squadron was to keep
Ganteaume well watched and held in check. Ganteaume would not
come out and fight, he had therefore to be blockaded, and it was largely
to the efficiency with which the blockade was maintained that the
impotence of the French fleet for harm was due. It is curious to find
Mr. Corbett using language which rather belittles the blockade and
seeming to attach a value to mere positions in themselves, as though
he were of Jomini's school of strategists. Undoubtedly the control of the
approaches to the Channel was important, but had Cherbourg been the
headquarters of the French Atlantic fleet, the Western Squadron would
not have been found off Ushant.

The very able defence which Mr. Corbett brings forward for Corn-
wallis' much criticised division of his fleet on August i6th really seems
to bring out the fact that where the French squadrons were there was
the place for the main fleets of the English. The division in question took
place after Nelson and Calder had fallen back on Cornwallis, at the time
when Villeneuve was off" Ferrol and was expected to be coming north.
Admiral Mahan l and Mr. Leyland 2 have condemned Cornwallis for
dividing his force and sending Calder with twenty of his thirty-eight
battleships to resume the blockade of Ferrol, arguing that this violated
the great principle of concentration and risked defeat in detail. Napoleon
himself called the move 'une insigne be'tise,' and yet Mr. Corbett is
able to show good cause for approving highly of it. The stroke was
' well within fair risk of war ' (p. 252). There were plenty of British

^Influence of Sea Power upon the French Revolution and Empire.
2 'Blockade of Brest (Navy Records Society).

80 Corbett : The Campaign of Trafalgar

cruisers about the Bay — Ferrol was never left unwatched — and there was
very little chance of Villeneuve escaping observation or ' playing prisoners'
base' with Calder and Cornwallis. And had he fallen in with either
division, would the collection of ships he had with him — it cannot be called
a fleet — have been equal to tackling eighteen or twenty British battleships ?
Jervis had won St. Vincent against greater odds. Moreover, as has been
shown, Ganteaume could hardly have been able to take part in an action
between Cornwallis and Villeneuve. But the great thing was that as long
as the British fleet was concentrated off Ushant, Villeneuve was free to go
where he would. To have kept the whole Western Squadron concentrated
would have been to adopt a mere defensive and to leave the initiative to
Napoleon, who might have used Villeneuve with effect in the Mediterranean
(p. 250). The division did not give Villeneuve the interior position ; he
already was between Cornwallis and the Mediterranean Squadron under
Collingwood. What the detaching of Calder to the southward did was
that it deprived Villeneuve of his liberty of action, a very urgent need
which might well have justified a more risky step. And after all, the
division was not merely approved by Barham, in making it Cornwallis
was only anticipating the instructions Barham gave.

There is much more of which one might write. The praise given to
Barham is not more than is fully deserved. The account of the battle is
full of interest and a valuable contribution to its controversies. The charts
are excellent and a great help to the reader. The attention given to the
workings of the cruisers is very well bestowed : it enables Mr. Corbett
to show on what intelligence the Admiralty and the commanders acted
alhd how it was collected. The record of Allemand's cruises and narrow
escapes is really astonishing; he, at least, could not complain of his luck.
Lastly, though one would have preferred not to end a review with a
criticism, when the book is one of such real interest and value, it seems
a little too positive to say that the decision to attack Austria was quite
independent of Villeneuve's failure to reach Brest. It was taken after a
letter from Decres in which the Minister of Marine expressed his con-
viction that Villeneuve must have gone to Cadiz (p. 275). The
admiral's letter of August 3rd had shown that he was contemplating a
retreat to Cadiz. His non-appearance off Brest may well have led
Napoleon to leap to a conclusion which M. Desbriere1 has well described
as * la merveilleuse intuition montr^e par l'Empereur,' even if, as he adds,
'jamais decision plus grave ne parait avoir £t£ prise sur des motifs moins
solides.' Napoleon would not have realised, as a sailor would, that the
delay might easily be explained by adverse winds; he knew Villeneuve
was none too confident of himself or his fleet, and he may have realised
that the admiral not merely had not come but was not coming. Mr.
Corbett thinks it was on September ist that Napoleon got definite news that
Villeneuve was in Cadiz; but it was on August 2Qth that he heard of
Cornwallis dividing his fleet and remarked 'quelle chance a manqude
Villeneuve,' as though speaking of a thing past. Had he any more
positive information then than on the 23rd or 24th ?

C. T. ATKINSON.
1 Trafalgar, p. 112.

England and the French Revolution 81

ENGLAND AND THE FRENCH REVOLUTION, 1789-1797. Johns Hopkins
University Studies in Historical and Political Science. Series xxvii.,
Nos. 8-12. By William Thomas Laprade, Ph.D. Pp. 232. 8vo.
Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press. 1909. One dollar.

MR. LAPRADE has given very careful research to the subject of his
monograph. He set out meaning to relate the effect of the French
Revolution on the social and political life of England, but his research
has led him to the conclusion that the influence of the Revolution in
social matters was practically »//, and that in political matters it did little
more than serve as a deus ex machina to the political purposes of William
Pitt. His conclusions are disappointing and lead one to ask, if this be
all, why not say so in fewer words ? The answer would seem to be that
Mr. Laprade has in the course of his study become so much interested
in the politics of English ministers, and especially of their great leader,
William Pitt, in the years from 1789-1797, that he has found in them
his real subject. His researches have led him to believe that Pitt and
his colleagues ' used ' the French Revolution * for their own political
purposes as a pretext for reviving the old-time struggle with France for
supremacy in the commercial and in the colonial world.' In other words,
that they forced a war on France. In adopting this view Mr. Laprade
separates himself from the accepted historical opinion. He has therefore
to build up his own theory with elaborate care. English history has
regarded Pitt as essentially a peace-minister. l His enthusiasm,' says Lord
Rosebery, 'was all for peace, retrenchment and reform. . . . To no
human being did war come with such a curse as to Pitt, by none was
it more hated or shunned,' and what Lord Rosebery has said later his-
torians have endorsed. Such is not Mr. Laprade's view. Pitt, he
maintains, incited Holland against France on the question of the opening
of the Scheldt, broke the commercial treaty of 1786 between France and
England by his Alien Bill of 1792, refused what Mr. Laprade considers
a satisfactory explanation by France of the famous decrees which in
November, 1792, threatened all established governments, and 'cultivated
the fears' aroused in England by revolutionary societies and seditious
writings. Finally he 'took advantage' of the execution of the king for
the action which he expected would force the English to declare war —
'he arranged to hold a meeting of the Privy Council immediately after
the execution of Louis XVI. that an order might be issued requiring
Chauvelin to leave England.' One cannot but respect the industry which
Mr. Laprade has devoted to the working out of his theory, but, un-
fortunately, in the whole course of his enquiry he writes as if conducting
a case against Pitt and his colleagues. With the writer's other conclusion,
'That the uprising in France played but a minor role in the domestic
history of England,' historians will be less inclined to quarrel. The
English and Scottish revolutionary societies had little direct permanent
effect on the life of England, and what they had can hardly be ascribed
to the French Revolution. It was due rather to the spirit of the time,
to the influence of the American Revolution, and to the writings of men
who, like Priestley and Paine, had formed their opinions before the French

F

82 Broxap : Great Civil War in Lancashire

Revolution broke out. Their indirect influence was seen in the repressive
measures to which the English Government had recourse. The account
given of these Societies by Mr. Laprade forms the most interesting and
instructive part of his book. But here again, in taking the side of the
Societies as against the Government, he is too much inclined to discount
the dangerous element and to leave untold the inflammatory oratory.
Contemporary pamphlets quote passages that could not lightly be passed
over. It must not be forgotten by the historian of the twentieth century
that the standpoint of the eighteenth century was not and could not be
ours. The monograph is full of points too detailed to be taken up in
a short notice, and should be read by those interested in the politics of
the time. It is furnished with an Index and an ample Bibliography.

SOPHIA H. MACLEHOSE.

THE GREAT CIVIL WAR IN LANCASHIRE, 1642-1651. By Ernest
Broxap, M.A. Pp. xv, 226. With Map and Plans. 8vo. Manchester
University Press. 1910. 73. 6d. nett.

THIS is a history the compilation of which must have involved much labour
and research, as the exactitude of detail shewn in it is quite beyond what
is usually found in similar works. The period to which it relates is a
difficult one for the historian desiring to give an account of the whole
struggle between King and Parliament, for it was not a war carried on by
one leading general, with forces concentrated for one main struggle.

In many respects it was a war conducted piecemeal in different
localities, to which the two contending parties in each district of the
country were allies respectively to those in other parts of the land, and
gave assistance when able to assist without weakening their own power of
resistance to their local adversaries. This was markedly the case in
Lancashire, which was in the war before others joined issue, and remained
in it till the struggle had waned and died out elsewhere. Lancashire was
then an unimportant county, with much moor, and isolated by the natural
configuration of the land from the eastern part. This led to the contest
being local, though having an important bearing on the whole campaign.

In Lancashire the struggle was a class one, as indeed it was in degree
everywhere, but the parliamentarians in that county had to meet the
powerful royalists who clung to the great county magnate, Lord Derby,
who drew to himself almost all the then so powerful aristocratic element.
There was great reluctance in Lancashire to open war, both partisans
probably realising that when once begun the fight would be bitter and the
issue doubtful. But once the combatants took the field, there was resolute
determination on both sides, and there was much of up-and-down in the
events which followed, and of these the author has given a clear and
graphic account. His love of accuracy and detail — or rather his con-
scientiousness in working it out — to some extent may detract from the
interest of the book to the general reader, but the lover of history will be
grateful to him for so full an account of a section of the great war, which
had a telling influence on the subsequent course of events. For had the
revolutionists been effectively crushed in Lancashire, as they well might

Broxap : Great Civil War in Lancashire 83

have been if generalship had been better on the royalist side than it was,
the whole course of events might have been affected, either to cause
prolongation of the royalist resistance, or even failure of their opponents to
obtain the mastery.

The opening of the campaign as reported at the time is ludicrously like
the modern accounts of events in newspapers, where the reporter sees
what the other reporter for the other side does not see. Lord Strange's
visit to Manchester for negotiation is reported as a scene of joy, ' acclama-
tions, bonfires, streets strewed with flowers,' Lord Strange entering unarmed
in his coach, with only his ordinary attendants. The other side's report
described his * coming in a warlike manner, attended by many horsemen,
with cocked pistols and shouts that the town was their own.' It is not
surprising that on that very afternoon there was crowd and melee, shots
fired at Lord Strange, a royalist knocked off his horse and his assailant
killed. This was the lighting of the match that kindled the flame, which
for years burned fiercely throughout the county. Had Lancashire been left
to fight its own battles, it is probable the royalists would have crushed
the opposition, but orders from headquarters caused a large force of
royalists to be moved elsewhere, with disastrous effects upon their cause.
Those opposed to the King were not of one mind among themselves, and
might easily have been overawed into submission had power of forces been
maintained. Instead of which Strange, in loyal obedience, allowed much
of his power to be carried off to other parts of the land.

There is not much interest attaching to the field fights. There were
few combats that could be called pitched battles. There was much of
what may be called running fighting. Interest concentrates on the
sieges. Of these two stand out prominently — the siege of the town of
Manchester, and the siege of Lathom House, the seat of the Derby
family. The siege of Manchester by the royalists affords a strong illustra-
tion of the folly of dividing forces, and enabling defenders to meet attacks
made with too small forces to act rapidly and effectively. The author
goes into great, perhaps too great, detail in describing this siege, as such
minute treatment makes the account wearisome to the non-technical
reader, and there is little of instruction for the soldier.

The siege of Lathom is a much more interesting episode, as it is full of
incident, and has the romance attached to it that the defence was con-
ducted bravely and skilfully under the leadership of a woman, the
Countess of Derby, a daughter of the Due de Touars, and grand-
daughter of William the Silent ; a brave woman, whose answer to the
besiegers is worth recording — * Though a woman and a stranger divorced
from my friends, I am ready to receive your utmost violence, trusting in
God for protection and deliverance.'

But her celebrated later answer is historical : * Tell that insolent rebel,
he shall have neither persons, goods, nor house ; when our strength and
provision is spent, we shall find a fire more merciful than Rigby, and then,
if the providence of God prevent it not, my goods and house shall burn in
his sight ; myself, children, and soldiers, rather than fall into his hands,
will seal our religion and our loyalty in the same flame.' It is a pleasure to

84 Records of the Trades House of Glasgow

know that this brave lady repelled the besiegers successfully till succour
came. Lathom only fell in a later siege, when the inspiration of the
Countess no longer upheld the garrison.

Sufficient has been said to indicate the interest and value of this history.
It is written in a clear style, and there are many verifying and interesting
notes from contemporary writings. ] R ^ MACDONALD.

THE RECORDS OF THE TRADES HOUSE OF GLASGOW, A.D. 1605-1678.
Edited by Harry Lumsden. Pp. xxvii, 574,410. Glasgow: Printed
for the Trades House of Glasgow. 1910.

No obscurity surrounds the origin of the body known as the Trades House
of Glasgow. A little over three hundred years ago, or to be exact, on 9th
February, 1605, an award was pronounced by arbiters who had been
appointed to treat and decide concerning the privileges of the merchants
and craftsmen within the burgh and the settlement of controversies between
them ; and by this award, familiarly known as the Letter of Guildry, it
was provided that there should thenceforth be in the city a dean of guild, a
deacon convener, and a visitor of maltmen. The deacon convener was to
be chosen by the town council from a leet presented by the deacons of the
respective crafts, and when appointed he was directed to convene the whole
deacons of crafts 'and their assisteris,' as occasion required, and with their
advice to judge betwixt them in matters pertaining to their crafts and
callings, and to make acts and statutes for good order amongst them. The
several deacons and their assistants were at first called the Deacon Con-
vener's Council, and it is the record of their proceedings down to the year
1678 which is now published. At the first recorded election of the
council the deacon convener nominated the whole deacons of crafts, the
visitor of maltmen, and other nine persons, 'to be his counsellours to
convein with him and to advyse in all things that sail concerne the glorie
of God, the weale of this burgh, and their particular weale, nocht hurtand
the weale of ony wther within this burgh.' As latterly constituted, the
council consisted of 14 deacons and 40 assistants, making 54 members in
all. About half a century after it was first formed, the Council began
to assume the name of the Crafts House or Trades House, by which latter
it is now invariably designated.

Though the Glasgow of 1605, with Stockwell Street at its western
limit and with a population of about 7,000, was inconsiderable when
viewed from a modern standpoint, it is described in a contemporary docu-
ment as having then * becum well peopled and hes ane greit traide and
trafficque,' and it had 'speciall plaice and voice as ane frie citye of the
kingdome.' There were 213 burgesses of the merchant rank and 363 of
the trades rank. Only those burgesses who were members of the in-
corporations were allowed to practise their craft as masters, and their seals
of cause regulated the employment of journeymen and apprentices. The
earlier seals of cause always stipulated for contributions to specified altars,
but subsequent to the Reformation the dues which, as described in one of
these documents, were 'of old superstitiously bestowed on their blind

Records of the Trades House of Glasgow 85

devotions,' were applied towards support of the poor. While the individual
crafts incorporations were still to continue in charge of their own decayed
members, the letter of guildry provided for the maintenance of hospitals
by both merchants and craftsmen for so many of their respective poor.
The new deacon convener and his council lost no time in purchasing a
site for their hospital. By the expenditure of 'diveris and greit sowmes
of money,' the ruinous and decayed hospital at the Stablegreen, founded in
the beginning of the previous century by Sir Roland Blacader, subdean,
was procured for the purpose, but within a couple of years that design
was abandoned, and the manse of the parson of Morebattle was acquired
and fitted up as the almshouse. The endowments of Blacader's hospital
appear in the early accounts as the * craftis auld rentall, extending to
£26 93. 4d.,' and a sum of 10 merks was paid 'for translatting of the
hospitalis fundatioun in Inglische.' The minutes and accounts now printed
show how the work of starting the new hospital proceeded and how a
voluntary contribution was collected to meet the expense. Slates were
carted from the Broomielaw, having probably been brought from Argyll-
shire in boats, nails were brought from Bannockburn, quarriers were paid
for stones, 5$. 4d. was paid 'to the wrichtis for aill quhen they began to
lay the hospitall wark,' and the like sum for other two quarts when they
finished the job. After the hospital had been set agoing six poor men were
lodged in it, getting yearly pensions of £48 each besides allowances of
clothing, ' sarkis ' and ' schoone.'

In the accounts for the year 1607-8 the gross charge, including £133 of
borrowed money, a legacy of £3, and £152 contributed by the crafts,
amounted to £449 Scots, or £37 sterling, a small beginning for an institu-
tion which to-day has assets valued at £158,261, and an annual revenue
of £7,895. Successful speculation in land, beginning with the purchase of
Gorbals in 1650, was one of the chief means by which this wealth was
accumulated.

With the exception of one or two lost leaves, the first MS. volume of
records, embracing the period 1678-1713, is complete, and its contents are
given in full. This is commendable, though it results in the printing of
much routine matter, such as procedure at the annual elections, reports on
the yearly accounts, regulations for the contributions leviable from the
several incorporations, and details as to the investment of funds. Loyal
support was usually given to schemes having the general welfare of the
town in view. A sum of £500 was raised for one of the town's ministers,
contributions were made towards the expense of defending the thirlage
rights of the city at a critical juncture, the deacons gave money for supplies
of arms and armour, and assistance was given in carrying out a resolution
of the town council instructing the removal of stones from Dumbuck ford
for improving the navigation of the Clyde. An example of the way in
which the deacon convener's council settled disputes occurs in 1638, when
seven members of the coopers' incorporation complained that the rule under
which purchases of imported material ought to be dealt equally to poor and
rich had been infringed. The council ordered that the deacon of the
coopers, accompanied by two or three honest men of the calling, should in

86 Ancient Church Dedications in Scotland

future purchase such material and divide the same equally among the poor
and the rich, * without respect of persons,' it being lawful for any poor
cooper to sell his lot at a profit if he was unable to pay the price. At
another time the council cordially approved of the proceedings of the
incorporation of wrights in trying to repress and punish an incorrigible
member who had * malitiouslie ' called his deacon a 'pendicle.'

This carefully edited volume, with its valuable information on points of
local history, commercial and industrial development, has its attractive appear-
ance enhanced by well-executed facsimiles of portions of the original record.

ROBERT RENWICK.

ANCIENT CHURCH DEDICATIONS IN SCOTLAND (Scriptural Dedications).

By James Murray Mackinlay. Pp. xxiii, 419. Demy 8vo. Edinburgh:

David Douglas. 1910. I2s. 6d. nett.

IN a Prefatory Note the author defines the object of this volume as twofold.
* In the first place, to give some account of the Cathedrals, Parish and
Collegiate Churches, Chapels, Hospitals, and Monasteries, under the invo-
cation of saints mentioned in Holy Scripture ; and, in the second place, to
trace the influence that these saints have had on ecclesiastical festivals,
usages and symbolism.'

The result is a catalogue raisonnk which partakes more of the nature of a
work of reference than of a definite and articulated treatise. There is room
for an authoritative work on the Consecration of Churches, and it is unfor-
tunate that Mr. Mackinlay has confined himself to the topographical side of
his subject. An historical introduction, in which the evolution of the
subject of Consecration from the early Roman and Gallican rites through
the legislation of the Medieval Church would have been traced, would have
added greatly to the interest of his researches. The special field which he
has chosen offers admirable illustrations of the difficulties which presented
themselves in every country to the Canon lawyers, and the general rules which
were framed to meet them throw light on Scottish usages which at first
sight seem somewhat arbitrary. The conflicting claims of national and
Roman saints, e.g.y had to be met in many fields. But within his self-
imposed limits Mr. Mackinlay has dealt adequately with his subject, and the
material which he has collected has a permanent value for local historians.

DAVID BAIRD SMITH.

NEWS LETTERS OF 1715-16. Edited by A. Francis Steuart, Advocate.
Pp. xv, 157. 8vo. Edinburgh: W. & R. Chambers, Ltd. 1910.
5s. nett.

AT the time of its occurrence the Jacobite rising of 1715 was allowed to
pass with small comment, while the offenders were leniently dealt with by
the reigning powers. Consequently few records were left of the affair, and
consequently, in turn, historians have said comparatively little on the subject.
But albeit lacking the romance of the great rising thirty years later, the
'Fifteen is distinctly an interesting episode, and the mere fact that it has
been so slightly handled heretofore lends an additional fascination to any
sidelights thereon.

Steuart : News Letters of 1715-16 87

The News Letters now set forth by Mr. A. Francis Steuart are printed
from originals in the possession of Mr. Charles E. S. Chambers, who
inherited them from his grandfather, Dr. Robert Chambers, the well-known
historian. They formerly belonged to Sir Archibald Steuart Denham of
Coltness, Bart., and it was to him they were addressed from time to time
during the rising. The writer's own name is not disclosed, but it is
evident that he was an enthusiastic Whig ; and, though any literary gift is
conspicuous by its absence from his correspondence, the latter is none the
less valuable historically because of this limitation. It furnishes accounts,
of course, of the raising of Mar's standard, of the Jacobites' abortive attempt
to take Edinburgh Castle, and of the battle of Sheriffmuir ; while ever and
anon it leads from these highways into less familiar byways, and gives
information anent various recondite matters. It is useful, in particular, in
the light it throws on the genesis of the 'Fifteen, and in what it tells of the
less important parties implicated therein. It shows, moreover, to what a
large extent mercenaries from Holland and Switzerland were employed to
quell the rebellious clans, while it illuminates the behaviour of the govern-
ment troops during their sojourn in Scotland, and the degree of discipline
maintained amongst them. On this subject the writer gives nothing but
praise, speaking with marked enthusiasm of the equipment of the soldiers,
and saying of certain of them : ' I scarse think there is a more showy regi-
ment in Europe.' Of the insurgent Highlanders he writes less generously,
describing them as * a crewell enemie ' ; but one can hardly blame him for
this misconception, for was it not universal at the time, both in England
and in lowland Scotland ?

As regards the editor's own part of the book, here and there he is
inclined to be disappointing. He mentions Sir James Steuart Denham,
who eventually succeeded to the estate of Sir Archibald, first as a * cadet,'
and then as a ' relative ' of the latter. Now Sir James is so very interesting
a figure in history — for he practically founded the science of political
economy — that one is naturally anxious to know the precise consanguinity
between him and the owner of the MSS. The Dictionary of National
Biography offers no information on this head, so it is a pity that Mr.
Steuart says nothing, and the same is true of another section. This
describes attempts to suppress Jacobite plots and plans in and around
Edinburgh, and it speaks of ' neer catching some ringleaders had been at
the principall Chainge House at Wrightshowses.' What a pity that Mr.
Steuart does not give any elucidation on this passage, for one cannot but
wonder if the writer refers to the ancient ' Golf Tavern,' which overlooks
Bruntsfield Links to this day. The veteran building was lately demolished,
but, as its street is still named * Wright's Houses,' one would fain believe
that the present hostelry is a relic of Jacobite hopes, and that it was here the
culprits met to drink the health of the king over the water.

These are infinitesimal matters, however, and in the main the editor has
done his work excellently. His volume cannot be called indispensable to
students of Jacobite history, yet it is one which most such will read with
interest, and will surely care to possess.

W. G. BLAIKIE MURDOCH.

88 Oman : England before the Norman Conquest

ENGLAND BEFORE THE NORMAN CONQUEST. Being a History of the
Celtic, Roman, and Anglo-Saxon Periods down to the year 1066.
By Charles Oman. Pp. xx, 679, with 3 Maps. Demy 8vo.
London : Methuen & Co., Ltd. IDS. 6d. nett.

PROFESSOR OMAN'S latest book marks a new stage in the writing
of Early English history. Within recent years, thanks to the work of
scholars like Haverfield, Stevenson, Chadwick, and Maitland, the con-
clusions of older historians have been everywhere undermined, but
while tentative local reconstructions have been attempted, until the
appearance of this volume, no general summary of results had been
made. But now Mr. Oman has given us a book which, without pre-
tending to any original detailed research of its own, gives the general
reader a fair statement of the results arrived at by scholarship since J. R.
Green, and Freeman, and Stubbs wrote their histories. It has not, of
course, the picturesque style and pious fervour of Green's Making oj
England and Conquest of England, nor does it surrender so pleasantly to
the charms of Bede's Ecclesiastical History as Green does in some of his
best pages. But by way of substitute we have a sane, restrained, and
scholarly narrative, which attempts little fine writing, and refuses to give
speculation, however fascinating, where plain fact alone is justified.

For practically the first time, the general reader is given an account of
Roman Britain, not merely interesting, but authoritative, and Mr.
Haverfield's supervision of the Roman sections lends an additional force to
Mr. Oman's work. In the same way, the grain has been sifted from the
chaff in Mr. Chadwick's recent highly speculative work, and much of what
is soundest in that scholar's Origins of the English Nation may be found
here, related in sober fashion to the main body of Early English history.

In work demanding so much readjustment and replacement, errors in
judgment, or unfortunate changes in emphasis were to be looked for — the
more naturally because Mr. Oman owes no special allegiance to this period.
But, on the whole, he must receive praise as an extraordinarily skilful
improvvisatore. His earlier pages, on Celtic Britain, show more difficulty,
are less certain in their information, than the rest of the book. The
rather culpable neglect to mention, in any adequate way, Early English
literature, coupled with a little slip in a reference to Beowulf (on page
403, where Hygelac appears as Beowulf's elder brother) suggests either
that he does not know, or that he does not care, for one important
aspect of his subject. The chapters on ecclesiastical history, while
moderately comprehensive, hardly do justice to the church in Ireland
and lona. And, to bring the ungrateful task of fault-finding to an end,
while Mr. Oman's caution in social and constitutional reconstruction is
admirable, it has, in two instances at least, made him inadequate as a
substitute for Stubbs or Freeman. The pages which deal with the early
English monarchy (352-358) are hardly illuminating, and in no sense do
justice to the most important of all Mr. Chadwick's contributions to
early constitutional history ; and distinctly too little has been made of
Maitland's Domesday Book and Beyond, more especially with reference to
the origins of feudalism.

Oman : England before the Norman Conquest 89

But when all has been said, the book stands out as a sound and
authoritative account of the most difficult period in British history.
Considering how few Mr. Oman's opportunities for picturesque narrative
have been, compared with those allowed by earlier canons of scholarship
to writers like J. R. Green, the book is wonderfully interesting, and
proves once more how unusual a gift its author has for popularising the
researches of more plodding minds. As a populariser, Mr. Oman cannot
expect to have the easy power of the great scholars, whose work he is
assisting to supersede ; for, with all his faults, J. R. Green's knowledge
of, and sympathy with, Anglo-Saxon England, gave all he wrote on his
subject an air of distinction ; and the virile understanding and profound
learning of Dr. Stubbs made even his errors in Early English history
profitable. One naturally expects to find history interpreted more narrowly
where the resources of the writer are restricted. But, after all, the
comparison is unfair ; and as a text-book, or accessible account of the
period, the volume takes a distinct place of its own.

One peculiarly pleasing feature in Mr. Oman's work must receive
some recognition. His field of inquiry is one, famous of old for acrid
controversy, and scholars of name have lost their tempers and their
manners over the very issues discussed in these pages. But even where the
conclusions of earlier scholars had to be set aside, Mr. Oman has done
it without an unfair reflection, and not even the suggestion of personal
abuse.

The book is provided with an adequate index, but it is hardly possible to
praise the system (or confusion of systems) on which modern and ancient
place-names are allotted in the three maps at the end of the volume.

J. L. MORISON.

THE PARISH REGISTERS OF ENGLAND. By J. Charles Cox, LL.D., F.S.A.

With twenty-four illustrations. The Antiquary's Books. Pp. xx, 290.
Demy 8vo. London : Methuen & Co., Ltd. 1910. 75. 6d. nett.
THERE was no need for a well-informed antiquary like Dr. Cox to make
an apology for undertaking a book on the parish registers of England, for
few men living are better equipped by knowledge and experience for the
task. Nor can it be said that such a book is outside the scope of the series
of which the author is editor, and to which he has already rendered
valuable service. The various branches of English antiquities com-
prehended in * The Antiquary's Books,' so far as the scheme has been
accomplished, have been treated in such a scholarly and popular way that
the volumes may be regarded as indispensable to the working student as
well as the general reader. The latest contribution to the series is worthy
of high rank among the volumes already published.

Dr. Cox has entered the lists in competition with some eminent pioneers
in the same field, and we do not think that his claim for respectful con-
sideration has been strengthened by a half-hearted appreciation of the
labours of some of his predecessors. It would have been better if he had
frankly stated that each of the previous manuals had a value and individu-
ality of its own. Workers on parish registers owe too great a debt to-

90 Cox : The Parish Registers of England

Ralph Bigland, Somerset Herald, who published his observations so long ago
as 1764, and to John Southerden Burn, who wrote on parish registers in
1829, to forget how much help they had received from a perusal of their
pages. If the successors of these pioneers have produced more trustworthy
and comprehensive compilations, much was no doubt due to the work
already done, and to the greater opportunities which have arisen in recent
years by the printing of so many registers in various parts of the country.
Despite the praiseworthy efforts of Mr. Chester Waters, carried on in a
spirit that almost amounted to heroism, and when every recognition for
painstaking research and accurate knowledge is accorded to Mr. Meredyth
Burke and Dr. Cox for their respective contributions to the history of
parish registers, one cannot help feeling that Bigland and Burn will hold
honourable niches among them, and that students will turn to their pages
on some points where the others have failed to give the required guidance.

The importance of some record like a parish register of baptisms,
marriages, and burials had been long felt before Thomas Cromwell, the
famous minister of Henry VIIL, brought the institution into being in
1538. In vain have we looked in Dr. Cox's pages for a discussion of the
forerunners of the parish register in England. Perhaps the author believed
that ' there were no snakes in Iceland.' Anyhow we should like to have
the explicit opinion of an expert of the public records, as Dr. Cox
undoubtedly is, on the calendars of parish churches and the entries in
missals and psalters which meet us, notably in proofs of age, during the
medieval period. The hazard of a forecast is small that the institution
had been slowly growing and taking shape in men's minds till the psycho-
logical moment came with the destruction of the religious houses and the
necessity for parochial registration dawned on King Henry's astute adviser,
who made it compulsory on the English clergy. It is thought by many
students that the arguments of Mr. Chester Waters on this matter will
not stand the test of more recent knowledge.

Notwithstanding a sincere admiration for Dr. Cox and his book, we
take leave to dissent from his views on the origin of Bishops' Transcripts.
It is to be regretted that the old story of the Injunctions of 1597 nas been
accepted and handed on. A more careful scrutiny of diocesan registries
will reveal the existence of transcripts at a much earlier period than the
date indicated by the author. Genuine transcripts will be met with in the
parochial bundles of such repositories at various dates from 1560 onwards,
perhaps from a much earlier period. Dr. Cox has noticed the abortive
attempts in 1563 and 1590 to establish a general registry in each diocese.
These projects should have suggested to him that the idea of Bishops'
Transcripts at that period was not only in the air, but very much on the
firm ground. If he takes up his Cardwell he will find that Archbishop
Parker inquired in 1569 c whether your ministers keepe their registers
well and do present the copy of them once every yeare by indenture to
the ordinarye or his officers.' In 1571 a precisely similar injunction was
given by Archbishop Grindal in his metropolitical visitation of the province
of York. There is little doubt that Bishops' transcripts, as well as
parish registers, were in existence as an institution long before they

Cotton : The Bardon Papers 91

received definitive recognition by synodical or other authority. The
existence of numerous genuine transcripts in several diocesan registries
before the date assigned for their origin, when read in the light of the
archiepiscopal injunctions in both provinces, should convince Dr. Cox that
the old theory to which he has given his adherence needs revisal.

The volume is well arranged in chapters under separate titles according
to subject-matter. Among the appendices there is a list of parish registers
beginning in 1538, and another in 1539, while a third gives a list of those
wholly or partly in print. The illustrations are as curious as they are
valuable. The most interesting are perhaps the facsimiles of some title-
pages of registers. The portrait of Thomas Cromwell, the founder of
parish registers, fitly occupies the chief place. The motto of the volume
that * every parish must have a history, every parish has a register, every
person has a parish,' is not the least happy of the proverbial sayings of
Bishop Stubbs. There is a good index.

JAMES WILSON.

THE BARDON PAPERS : Documents relating to the Imprisonment and
Trial of Mary Queen of Scots. Edited for the Royal Historical Society
by Conyers Read, Ph.D., with a Prefatory Note by Charles Cotton,
F.R.C.P.E., M.R.C.S. Pp. xlv, 139. 410. London : Offices of the
Society. 1909.

THE Bardon Papers are certain MSS. discovered in 1834 at Bardon House,
Somerset, and now in the British Museum. Though they reveal nothing
of cardinal importance not already well known in regard to the imprison-
ment and trial of the Queen of Scots, they supply a number of details of
various interest ; and while they further confirm the reluctance of Elizabeth
to assent to her execution, they render, if that were possible, still more
evident the determination of her accusers to secure it by hook or by crook.
At the same time they contain no really fresh evidence as to Mary's
innocence or guilt. They leave the matter where it was, wherever that
may be.

The annotation of the documents by Dr. Conyers Read is careful and
illuminating; and his introduction supplies all that is necessary for an
intelligent perusal of them, in addition to what may be termed supple-
mentary matter. On one or two points his statements are, however, not
quite accurate, or stand in need of qualification. Every one will not
agree with him that it is difficult to answer the question as to whether
Mary was guilty of connection with the murder of Darnley, if that
be what he means to affirm ; nor will every one agree with him that
the answer to this depends upon the question of the authenticity of the
casket letters, if that be what he means to imply. Many have had no
difficulty in answering the former question in the affirmative, even when
not fully persuaded as to the letters ; and as regards even the letters, Mr.
Lang himself — who is supposed to be prejudiced rather in favour of than
against Mary, if he be prejudiced at all, which of course he will deny — has
confessed, admittedly with reluctance, that he has no option but to assign
to her the fatally incriminating Glasgow letter.

92 Cotton : The Bardon Papers

It is hardly correct to say of the Duke of Norfolk that, while nominally
a Protestant, 'he was well known to be strongly Catholic in his sympathies.'
On the contrary, Maitland and other Protestants projected his marriage to
Mary because of his Protestantism. The duke was strong in nothing ; he
was merely a wobbler, whom in the end the Catholic conspirators purposed
to make a Catholic, and whom they and Mary befooled for their own
purposes. And is there much difficulty, as Dr. Read states, in guessing
Mary's motive in encouraging him ? She might, or might not, intend to
marry him, but she at least desired to utilize him as an instrument in
securing her liberty.

It seems rather rash to affirm that D'Aubigny's fall * destroyed perhaps the
best chance Mary ever had of realizing her hopes.' Unless Dr. Read is
able to fathom the mystery of D'Aubigny's real aims, unless he knows that
D'Aubigny was more devoted to Mary than to James or to his own self, he
can hardly indulge in even a perhaps as to the destruction of the * best
chance,' for was it so much as a chance ?

Dr. Read is of opinion that it would be rash to attempt any definite
pronouncement as to Mary's guilt or innocence of the Babington murder
plot, though, judging from what is otherwise known of her, he thinks she
* would not have been deterred by any nice moral scruples.' Now, to
those who have not given full attention to the various items of cumulative
evidence, this may seem a remarkably judicial verdict ; but a verdict of not
proven, unaccompanied with a careful summary of the evidence, has no
more claims for acceptance than a verdict, in similar circumstances, of
either innocent or guilty. Its impartiality depends wholly on the character
of the evidence ; and since there is no room here for adequate discussion of
this, I refrain from expressing an opinion, beyond the remark that Mary
must have been a phenomenally weak, soft, or angelic woman if she did
not approve of Elizabeth's assassination ; that her approval of it, if she did
approve of it, can hardly in the circumstances be deemed a crime ; that,
therefore, the question of her innocence or guilt is a very minor matter
indeed : a minor matter as regards herself, and a minor matter, also, as
regards her accusers, who, whether she was guilty or innocent, were the
begetters of the crime, real or imaginary, for which she suffered execution.

T. F. HENDERSON.

THE BOOK OF ARRAN. Edited by J. A. Balfour, F.R. Hist. S., F.S.A.Scot.
Pp. xiv, 295. With numerous Illustrations. 4to. Published for the
Arran Society of Glasgow by Hugh Hopkins, Glasgow. 1910.
2 is. nett.

HALF a century has elapsed since Mr. Bryce, mathematical master in
Glasgow, was requested to prepare a geological guide to the Valley of the
Clyde for the members of the British Association. Out of that production
was developed by the same author, The Geology of Arran and the other Clyde
Islands, a work scientific in conception and popular in form, than which
no more entertaining local guide-book could be obtained anywhere. One
feature of the book was the supplement of sections dealing with the history
of the Isle, and of chapters devoted to its Fauna and Flora contributed by

Balfour : The Book of Arran 93

various writers. That excellent book was a model precursor of this now
under review. In some respects the modern Book of Arran is like the old
in being a collaborated work by experts in various branches of science.
Their up-to-date results and conclusions, with photographic and engraved
illustrations of first merit, are edited by Mr. J. A. Balfour, who has
personally contributed seven chapters of great interest, dealing with subjects
within the pre-historic and historic periods.

The Introduction, entitled * The Building up of the Island,' is the work
of Sir Archibald Geikie ; Professor Thomas H. Bryce describes ' The
Sepulchral Remains' ; Mr. R. F. Coles delineates 'The Cup and Ring-
marked Stones ' ; Mr. F. C. Eeles discusses the ' Effigy of an Abbot at
Shisken ' ; Mr. C. E. Whitelaw, architect, describes ' The Castles ' ; and
Dr. Erik Brate, Stockholm, contributes an interesting chapter on the
'Runic Inscriptions in the Cell of St. Molaise.' Treatises on the recondite
subjects so dear to antiquarians are sometimes so dull and soporific that few
trouble to read them. But these archaeological essays, although written
with great precision, are presented in such lucid and simple terms that
ordinary readers, whether interested in the locality or not, cannot fail to be
fascinated in their perusal. The charming introductory chapter by Sir
Archibald Geikie affords an educative account of the geological up-
building of an Isle, no small part of whose romance lies in the fact that it
has been detached from the mainland at a late period of its history. A
diagram indicates the results of the seven distinct periods of eruption, and
the resultant lie of the land after the schists, grits, and conglomerates found
settlement, the sandstones took their bed, the upper measures were fixed,
and the irresistible lava stream burst up through all these strata and cooled
down on those ragged peaks, so grand to the eye of the traveller. The
picture given of the elements at their formative work is almost cinemato-
graphic in its realism. The glamour of the scene is on the writer himself,
and the eye of a poet guides the hand of a scientist.

With similar ease and grace of style Professor Bryce glides in and out
the chambered cairns which he lays bare in order to memorialise them
better with fascinating photographs from his camera. Here again the
reader is on solid ground, facing the evidences of the past carefully set out,
measured to a hair's-breadth, weighed, tabulated, compared, and judicially
pronounced on. Chamber and cist, skull and skeleton, urn and tool, are
critically examined, and in this valley of Dry Bones, the deft anatomist
raises up the aboriginals, restores flesh and feature, declares their sexes,
displays broad-head and narrow-head, in order to assert that ' a new and
pure race appeared in Scotland at the beginning of the Bronze age, bringing
with them the beaker urn and a new form of culture. In stature these
new people do not appear to have greatly exceeded the earlier Iberian
settlers, and in complexion they were probably dark like them.' Only by
experience and a long residence in the West can one comprehend all the
significance of the weighty conclusion of the learned professor ; — ' As an
ethnic factor, the broadheads have left very little trace of their presence.
The dominant type in the later population of Bute and Argyll has always
been dark and dolichocephalic. This type was, of course, strongly rein-

94 Balfour : The Book of Arran

forced from Ireland, but the district remained, in the main, true to the
characters of the earlier settlement.'

The Report on * The Cup and Ring-marked Rocks at Stronach Ridge,
Brodick,' prepared by Mr. Coles for the Society of Antiquaries, is here
reproduced without any further comment or suggestion as to the meaning
or origin of these mysterious memorials. The Editor, dealing with the
Proto-historic period, gives a short sketch of Viking burials with reference
to a find at King's Cross Point. Another interesting chapter on c An
Irish-Celtic Monastery,' gives the Editor an opportunity of drawing atten-
tion to the discovery of an early monastic establishment near Kilpatrick,
and to his suggestion that this may be the site of that monastery on Aileach
founded by St. Brendan. Very instructive, also, are the Editor's other con-
tributions to the volume, namely, * Chapels and Sculpture Stones,' 'The
Holy Isle,' * Miscellanea,' etc.

Mr. F. C. Eeles, in a very informative chapter 'On the Effigy of an
Abbot at Shisken,' clearly disposes of the tradition that this monument
represents St. Molio. The figure, now preserved in the Church at Shisken,
is none other than a medieval priest in his eucharistic vestments, as
antiquarians have long decided. The notes by Mr. Eeles on the forms of
vestments on West Highland monuments are very valuable.

From an architectural point of view Mr. C. E. Whitelaw has done
justice to * The Castles,' but it is a pity that space did not permit of
references to the part they played in the national and local story. It is
unfortunate that the present state of the Norse Runic inscriptions in the
cell of St. Molaise, Holy Isle, does not permit of Dr. Erik Brate making
more of them than suggestive interpretations. A catalogue of Arran place-
names, in their amended form, is a necessary accompaniment, as also is an
excellent map. Altogether this superb volume is a credit to the Arran
Society of Glasgow, and to its Editor, is a delightful guide-book to the
antiquities of a wonderful isle, and should be in the hands of lovers of

accurate research. , „

J. KING HEWISON.

MEMOIR OF THE RIGHT HON. SIR JOHN MCNEILL, G.C.B., and of his second
wife, Elizabeth Wilson. By their grand-daughter. Pp. xiv, 426. With
Illustrations. Demy 8vo. London : John Murray. 1910. 153. nett.

SIR JOHN M'NEILL, whose name is associated with British interests in Persia,
well deserved a monograph, and the book before us has given a satisfactory
one. He was born in 1795, and, being the third son of the Laird of
Colonsay, was a true Highlander. In early life he shared the frugal life of
the other islanders, and of this simple life Professor Mackinnon gives us a
very interesting account. At the age of twelve he went to Glasgow and
then to Edinburgh to follow the medical profession. In Edinburgh (to
show his strength, he once, it is said, for a wager, walked thence to Glasgow
and back in twenty-four hours) he made the acquaintance of the family of
Wilson, the best known member of which became * Christopher North,'
and having obtained his degree, married Miss Robinson, of Clermiston — an
imprudent match, the bridegroom being nineteen, and the bride two years

Memoir of the Right Hon. Sir John M'Neill 95

younger — and with his wife went to India in the service of the East India
Company. His young wife died in 1816, and he himself joined the Field
Force at Baroda, and saw some active service against Holkar and the
Pindarees.

In 1820 his long career in Persia began, as he was attached to the British
Mission in Teheran. After returning home in 1822 he married Elizabeth
Wilson, whose brothers were his dearest friends, a charming Scottish lady
(whose name is rightly associated with his in this book), in whom he found
an admirable wife and ally, and in 1823 went with her to Persia, from
whence her lively letters (she was a friend of Lockhart and the Blackwood
* group ') make agreeable reading. M'Neill took part in the negotiations
for peace after the Russo-Persian war, and had considerable influence in
altering the tortuous policy of Persian finance. In 1831 he was made
Resident at Bushire, brought his weight to bear on old Fatten Ali Shah,
and was Envoy to Khorassan.

During a visit to Europe he wrote a brochure. The Progress and present
position of Russia in the East, which became famous later during the Crimean
War. Then, parting from his wife and sole surviving child, he again went
out to Persia — but this time as Minister Plenipotentiary and Envoy Extra-
ordinary— in 1836. The complications between the Afghans and the
aggressive Persians brought him, though successful, into disfavour with the
new Shah, and he left for home, remaining there two years, and there was
created G.C.B. for his services. He returned to Persia for his last term in
1841, retiring next year, having pursued a policy crowned with success.

Forty-one years of retirement followed, but he was never idle for a
moment. He wrote, he was a Commissioner of the first Scottish Board
of Supervision, and he inquired into the potato famine (his report gives what
the author calls * the final word on the Crofter Question'), and he interested
himself in Highland emigration. In 1855, in his sixtieth year, he was
sent out to the Crimea to inquire into the working of the Commissariats.
This brought about a friendship with Miss Florence Nightingale, and, as
he wrote to his wife * enough remained to be done to make me thankful
I agreed to come here.' His dignified behaviour in the storm which
followed the publication of the Reports is very temperately told. Honours
fell thickly on him in the evening of his life, but his beloved wife died in
1868. He continued, however, to be of use to the world, and died as lately
as 1883, being tended by his third wife, the Duke of Argyll's sister, Lady
Emma Campbell, and his fame has caused him to be claimed (in 1903) as
Mrs. Eddy's great-grandfather by a very misguided Biographer of the
Founder of Christian Science !

The editor has done her difficult work well, she has given a glimpse
into Persian and Russian history and politics sufficient for her subject, and
she has inlayed her work with extracts from delightful family letters with
great skill. We think she is not wrong in having used the old orthography of
Oriental names instead of the more modern forms, but she should have seen
to their uniformity, and corrected not only some misprints but also the
spelling of the names of the German, Russian, and Austrian nobles
mentioned in her very readable biography. A FRANCIS STEUART.

96 Copinger : Heraldry Simplified

HERALDRY SIMPLIFIED : AN EASY INTRODUCTION TO THE SCIENCE AND A
COMPLETE BODY OF ARMORY. By W. A. Copinger, M.A., LL.D.,
F.S.A., Dean of the Faculty of Law in the University of Manchester.
Pp. 379. Illustrated by nearly 3000 examples. 4to. Manchester :
University Press. 1910. IDS. 6d. nett.

DR. COPINGER endeavoured to present within moderate compass all he
could find in the best authorities, in such a way as to enable anyone from
his volume alone, to acquire a competent knowledge of English heraldry.
And we regret that the reputation which the distinguished author gained
by other works is not likely to be enhanced by this volume.

The book proceeds, so far, on the lines of Clark's Introduction to Heraldry,
and there is a very full chapter extending to about fifty pages giving hints
on the compilation of pedigrees, and setting forth in detail all the well-
known sources of genealogical authority. A new feature appears to be the
arrangement of the common charges in alphabetical order, the examples
being so placed that when the description is too long to be printed under-
neath it appears on the opposite page.

Throughout the book there are statements which we are inclined to
challenge, and inaccuracies which we are afraid we cannot always attribute
to the printer. We give a few instances. In referring to arms of preten-
sion the author says: 'On the union with Ireland the arms of France
were first omitted, and the ensign of Ireland substituted in the third quarter
of the royal arms of Great Britain.' Now, there was no such substitution ;
the arms of Ireland have occupied the third quarter in every reign since the
accession of James I. In describing subordinate ordinaries, he says :
* The Orle is an insulated border in the shape of the Shield to which when
the half fleur-de-lis is affixed it becomes a Tressure.' This is incorrect :
the tressure is not more than half the breadth of the orle and, clearly, the
orle itself may be borne flory. Again, * the Flanch is formed of two curved
lines on each side of the Shield. They take their beginning from the corner
of the Chief, and from thence swelling by degrees until they come to the
middle of the Shield, and thence proportionably declinary to the Sinister base
point.' Should a beginner try to portray flanches of this pattern he would
make the curved lines meet at the fess point, and would then continue both
lines downwards to the same point, on the same side of the shield ! In
treating of borders, the author gives a dozen examples before he explains
what a border is, and would seem to contradict his glossary by stating
that ' a border is never metal upon metal.' A border enurny, he proceeds,
is one charged with 'lines,' evidently meaning lions, while in another
case the border is stated to be * charged with entoyre of bezants ' instead
of 'charged with bezants,' or 'entoyre of bezants,' one or the other.
And in speaking of ostrich feathers, he says that a plume of three heights
should consist of twelve feathers, six, five, four, and three, an arithmetical
and heraldic feat that we do not attempt.

Dr. Copinger's examples are occasionally too brief to be clear, as in this
case, ' Text R. by a sprig of Laurel.' At other times they are unnecessarily
full, as for example, 'Two fishes in saltier debruised by another in pale, the
tail erect, or, as sometimes termed, " teste a la Queve or Queue," or a trien

Copinger : Heraldry Simplified 97

of fishes lying cross, the heads and tails interchangeably posed, anciently
blazoned Tres trouts, etc., paly bendy, barony.'

Again, as simplicity was his aim, would it not have been better to have
avoided variations in the spelling of certain words which frequently recur ?
Sometimes close together, we find dawnset, dancett£e, dancette j nebule",
nebulae, nebuly; torteaux, torteauxes; beviled, bevelled, etc.

As regards the illustrations we hardly share the author's complacency.
They are not above the average, and we have seldom seen a more puerile
representation of a shield with supporters than is to be found on page 243.

On account of faults such as we have indicated we hesitate to say that
the volume, whatever its merits, may be considered a safe and only guide
to the study of heraldry. WILLIAM D. KER.

LES SOURCES ITALIENNES DE LA *DEFFENSE ET ILLUSTRATION DE LA
LANGUE FRANCHISE,' de Joachim du Bellay. Par Pierre Villey.
Sm. 8vo, pp. xlviii, 162. Paris: Honor£ Champion. 1908.
THE series, appropriately named l Bibliotheque Litteraire de la Renaissance,'
promises to enhance the credit of the publisher by its special contributions
to medieval and renaissance study, and to the criticism of such authors as
Petrarch, Rabelais, and Montaigne. As a search of sources the present
work is of unusual interest, and very clearly shows the use made in 1 549
by Du Bellay of Sperone Speroni's Dialogo delle Lingue, by wholesale
incorporations of it in the famous Defense et Illustration.

M. Villey's admirable introduction, moreover, demonstrates that the
adoption of the Italian's arguments and refitment of them from the case of
Italy to the case of France was only one stage of the important general
movement by which the vernacular tongues became decisively victorious
over Latin as the vehicle for the highest thought in politics as well as
literature. Du Bellay had probably read the Prose della lingua volgare of
Pietro Bembo. Born about 1500, and dead in 1588, Speroni, writing in
1542, was expanding the thesis of Bembo's Prose in favour of the vernacular.
The Prose had been written in 1502, although not published until 1525.

In mode, and to some extent in national spirit, Speroni's book follows the
Corteglano of Castiglione, published in 1529, adopting the dialogue form,
and justifiably making Bembo the chief spokesman for the Tuscan dialect.
When transferring the argument to its new requirements, Du Bellay had
no need to establish the supremacy of any one form of the French tongue :
that was settled, and the speech of Paris was the national language.
Pleading for French, with arguments translated page after page from
Italian, the Defense was a direct instance of the Italianisation so abundantly
evident in other aspects of European culture at the time, and so familiar to
us through its later manifestations in the England of Shakespeare. But
underneath was a keenness of national sense which made the argument
live and conquer, and which was also the dominant factor in the Scottish
parallel already commented on (S.H.R. vii. 429), viz. the Complaynte of
Scotland, adapted from the French, and published in the same year as Du
Bellay's adaptation from Italian. M. Villey's shrewdness of criticism can
hardly be better exhibited than by quoting his two verdicts : (l) that

G

9 8 Coronation Oaths

contrary to previous opinion, Du Bellay's work had * almost no originality '
(except to apply to French what had previously been applied to Italian) ;
and (2) that the glory of the work was its fortune to be * the programme of
the Pl£iade.' As a collation of sources and a crisp, learned, and satisfying
analysis of the results, M. Villey's little book is a capital exposition of the
art of historical literary criticism.

ALL constitutional subjects have a special antiquarian interest, sometimes
acute, as in the case of the coronation oath. Scotland's concern in the
subject may safely be reckoned vital in view of the part that religion played
in Scottish history, constitutionally considered, not only from the Reforma-
tion to the Union of 1 707, but ever since. Dr. Hay Fleming has there-
fore chosen the fit hour for publishing his Historical Notes concerning the
Coronation Oaths and the Accession Declaration (pp. 20 ; The Knox
Club, 1910, second edition, price threepence).

The pamphlet traces the position by law and practice in Scotland from
1329, when the long-sought privilege of unction and consecration was
granted to Scottish kings at their coronation, down to the Act of Union.
By the papal bull of 1329 the privilege of unction was granted subject to
an oath by the successive monarchs to exterminate all heretics (universes
hereticos exterminare). At the Reformation, under a statute of 1567, the
kings were required thenceforth at their coronation to * make their faithful
promise by oath in presence of the Eternal God' to maintain the 'true
religion ' as * now received and preached within this realm,' and * to root
out all heretics and enemies to the true worship of God that shall be con-
victed by the true Kirk of God.' Oath in these terms was made by
James VI., Charles I., Charles II., William and Mary, and Anne, but not
by James VII. and II.

Though superseded by the Act of Union, the Scottish enactment of
1 567 is yet unrepealed, and remains, however dormant, on the statute book,
in terms of the Statute Law Revision (Scotland) Act of 1906. Some of
the anathemas of Roman Catholic councils and confessions are printed for
comparative purposes by Dr. Hay Fleming. He would doubtless find
instructive suggestion in the coronation oaths of King George of Bohemia
in 1458, and the dubiety consequent on the king's silence or indirectness
regarding the Compacta and the utraquist tenets of the bulk of the Bohemian
people. The current question in view is too political to be discussed here,
but the pamphlet is timely in now offering a short survey of Scots
coronation practice. It is a valuable supplement to Professor Cooper's
paper in the Transactions of the Aberdeen Ecclesiological Society for 1902,
itself a mine of Scottish coronation-lore.

In the English Historical Review (July) Miss Dilben groups a great many
references to the position or office of Secretary in the thirteenth and
fourteenth centuries shewing an original connection with the English
king's < secret ' council, coming to be associated with a clerk, and from
1307 until 1367 combined with the keepership of the king's privy or
secret seal. There were many varieties of the species, however, and Miss
Dilben's collection of specimens throws much light on the official evolution.

Current Literature 99

Bibliographers and book lovers will appreciate Mr. P. S. Allen's account
of Bishop Shirwood of Durham, 1450-93, and his library, the gradual
acquisition of years of purchases of manuscripts and incunabula, especially
of Greek and Latin classics. Mr. H. L. Schoolcraft, in a paper on * England
and Denmark, 1660-1667,' traces the course of Charles II.'s policy in the
abortive effort to secure an offensive alliance with Denmark. Mr. J. H.
Clapham, writing on the ' Last Years of the Navigation Acts,' begins an
explanation of the antecedents of the repeal, and surveys the British treaty
relations with the leading European powers. Miss Kate Norgate, carefully
working over the papers of the late Mr. T. A. Archer, presents a most
interesting parallel collation between the well-known Itinerarium of the
crusade of Richard I., and the Song of Ambrose^ which is a French metrical
equivalent of the Itinerarium. She concludes that the song was most
probably a translation from a primitive text of the Latin work.

A first serial article in the Law Quarterly Review for July deals with an
important subject from rather a fresh standpoint. From the pen of M. de
W. Hemmeon, its proposition is that the records of Burgage Tenure in
Medieval England prove the development of feudalism in England to have
been antedated by a system of land holding in the boroughs, which later
came to be known as the burgage tenure. It is shown by the initial
section that the incidents of burgage tenure did not include aids or marriage,
but did include wardship, and sometimes relief. Heriot, too, was included,
meaning not * the best chattel ' (as we say in Scotland, ' the best aught ')
but a piece of arms, such as a sword, lance, or bill. Escheat and forfeiture,
fealty and homage existed, but with characteristic differences from the
feudal mode. The retrait fiodal is occasionally found, and so are alienation
fees, usually styled 'sellings' — the latter being small payments answering
somewhat to what Scots law calls the taxed entry of a singular successor.
The future course of these articles is sure to deserve close attention for their
direct and indirect Scottish interest.

In the Modern Language Review (July) the biography of Spenser as inter-
preting, and interpreted by, his Amoretti and Epithalamion is discussed by Mr.
J. C. Smith with a tendency to the view that the Amoretti were originally
written in honour of Lady Carey, but were rehandled later — as the poets know
how — along with the Epithalamion, for the praise of another, his bride, Eliza-
beth Boyle. Mr. Smith concludes his paper with an appeal for the necessity
of a historical exegesis of the Faerie £hieene. A list of Scandinavian personal
names used in England, drawn up by Mr. H. C. Wyld, will be found useful
for examination of place-name theories. The texts of two Middle High
German poems are edited by Mr. L. A. Willoughby, the first a version of
the legend of the fifteen signs of the approaching day of judgment, and the
second a poem on doomsday itself.

In the Juridical Review for July Mr. Valentine completes his study of the
Air considered as a realm of law. He inclines to the view that rights of
private property in land extending ad coelum are restricted by rights of public
passage at higher elevations than building structures, and therefore that
liability to damage from mishaps will not arise simply because of damage

ioo Current Literature

done, but will only be incurred by negligence on the part of aeronauts.
He deprecates legislation, preferring to let general principles adjust them-
selves for a while in the new medium before any attempt is made at an
enactment. Mr. Ferguson, K.C., sketches, without really fresh contribu-
tion, the history of the Sheriff in Scotland. His paper indirectly establishes
the great need there is for some antiquary to make the story of the great
office the theme of an extended monograph. Sir P. J. Hamilton-Grierson
gives an account of the medieval church doctrine of cognatio spirituality or
the principle of quasi-kinships constituted by baptism and confirmation.
We observe that he makes no reference to Bishop Dowden's Rhind
lectures, which dealt intimately with this subject, and are to be post-
humously published. A note on Professor Maitland by Professor Millar is
a pleasant feature among the reviews.

The Revue Historique (July-August) has a study in economic history
from 1697 until 1713 in an article by M. Ph. Sagnac on the commercial
foreign policy of France from the peace of Ryswick until the treaty of
Utrecht — a period when necessity made a relaxation of Protectionism
imperative, and gave occasion to many rearrangements of international
tariffs.

A series of despatches regarding the Westphalian campaign of 1761
is edited. A discussion is in progress over the word Gorthonicusy held with
documentary authority by Dr. Henry Bradley to be geographical, a term
for Gaul and Gaulish, but now maintained by M. Treich, on an airy
argument of philosophy, to be a descriptive epithet. It is always as
interesting to see a philologist at work on history as it is to see a historian
arguing philology. Dr. Bradley appears to have the documents behind
his contention, while M. Treich tries ineffectually to persuade them away.
A further stage is reached in the important question of interpreting the
table of penalties in the Lex Salica — whether as indemnities to the injured
or as fines to the State. The rival theorists have not yet reconciled the
anomalies of either interpretation, but the previously current doctrine of
indemnity is seriously shaken.

The Revue des Etudes Historiques (May-June, 1910) contains an article
by M. de Vaissiere on the intimate letters of a young French aristocrat of
the middle of the eighteenth century — Joseph Marie de Lordat to wit : the
letters throw fresh psychological side-lights on the French nobility during
that critical period, and some interesting deductions thereupon are made by
M. de Vaissiere. M. Morane writes on an episode in the troublous history
of Poland, and discusses the temperament and character of the Grand Duke
Constantin, brother of Alexander I.

Amongst the reviews in this number (chiefly of biographical works) may
be noted as of especial interest, remarks on the hitherto unpublished letters
of Luise Ulrike, sister of Frederick the Great ; on the Recollections of
Princess Galitzin ; and on the valuable series of Memoirs in the course of
publication by M. Funck-Brentano.

Communications

FRANCIS JOSEPH AMOURS. The death of our distinguished
contributor, Monsieur Francis Joseph Amours, has deprived Scotland of a
profound student of the national literary antiquities. Perhaps there is no
other instance of a Frenchman getting so complete a mastery of Old Scots,
and thus winning recognition as a foremost authority. He was born on
23rd November, 1841, at the village of Tilleul-Othon, in Normandy, in
the department of Eure, the son of Pierre Joseph Amours and Rosalie Adele
Conard. So well were the foundations of his education laid by the good
cure of Tilleul-Othon that on going, at the age of eighteen, to the college
of Bernay he proved a brilliant student. Under Principal Roger he
was dux in all subjects, and carried off the prix a'honneur offered by the
Minister of Education. He took his degree of Bachelier-es-Lettres of the
University of France at Caen in 1862.

By this time he seems to have given up any idea of entering the church,
and he became for a short while a R/gent in the college of Lisieux. In
1864 he was granted unlimited leave (congS cT inactivity sans traitement
from the Minister of Education, who was then the famous historian, Victor
Duruy. Passing over into England he taught in a private school in
Gloucestershire until 1867. He was then appointed assistant to M. Havet,
a well-known French master in Edinburgh, where he resided until 1869,
when he was chosen French master in Glasgow Academy. After fifteen
years there he was preferred to the like position in Glasgow High School,
where he remained until his retiral on a pension after twenty years' service
in 1904. During those five and thirty years of active teaching in this
country he passed through his hands a very large number of students of
French, and there are many who remember with gratitude and admiration
(chequered, of course, with the godly fear inseparable from the part) his
systematic and thorough methods of instruction and his encouragement of
pupils of promise. He long acted also as an examiner in French, at one
time for intermediate education in Ireland, and latterly for degree and
other purposes in Glasgow University. Side-products of his profession as a
teacher were two school books, his Study of French Verbs and his French
Primer, both in considerable demand.

But it was not as a French grammarian that he was to win his chief
distinctions. His study of Old French led him to the study of Old English.
For a number of years he paid special attention to the Old French words
incorporated in medieval English, and drew up an elaborate list of
examples he had found. Early in 1885 he appears to have tendered to

101

102 Communications

Dr. J. A. H. Murray, then at work on the first volume of the New
English Dictionary, the fruit of his researches. Needless to say, Dr. Murray
warmly accepted from M. Amours what he termed his * generous and
enthusiastic offer of help,' and in 1888 the preface to the first volume of
the Dictionary contains an acknowledgment for c a series of references for
early instances of French words in Middle English.' So began a connec-
tion maintained for five and twenty years, during which the resources of
M. Amours' scholarship and reading were steadily utilised in the making
of the great Dictionary which is so proud an achievement of collective
effort in English study.

The connection of M. Amours with the alliterative poems began, as he
himself has said, in the happy accident of his making the acquaintance of
Sir Frederick Madden's Syr Gawayne, that noble Bannatyne Club volume so
fitted to stir a kindred soul to the study of old poetry, and so worthy, by its
masterly treatment of palaeographical, textual, and glossarial problems, to be
a begetter of equally scholarly work in the archaeology of literature. With
its bases equally Old French, Middle English, and Scots, it presented in
its collection of archaic verse many of the glossarial and etymological
elements on which M. Amours was already working from the philological
standpoint. Henceforward he pursued those researches and studies in
early Scottish poetry which resulted in his editing the Scottish Alliterative
Poems in Riming Stanzas, of which the text appeared in 1892, followed by
the notes in the complete volume for the Scottish Text Society in 1897.
That work needs no commending, having earned its own place by its
sanity, accuracy, and complex learning alike in history, philology, and
criticism. The alliteratives, before M. Amours took them up, were a
* strange dark book ' ; his glossaries cleared away much of the obscurity ;
his notes and introduction brought an unhoped-for mass of explanatory
learning to the whole cycle ; and, in a word, the volume must long hold
place as a master-key for early Scottish literature. Conservative in mood,
he never pressed discovery beyond the obvious limits of the evidence, so
that his propositions, erring if at all on the side of understatement, are
invariably characterised by their safety. He had learned to write English
in a diction which had all the clearness of the best literary French without
a touch of its rhetoric, and his prefatorial essays are as well turned in
phrase as they are restrained in style.

His patient, sure-footed ways of study had set him completely at his ease
in a field full of difficulties due partly to the relative scarcity of material
and partly to the deliberate selection of archaic forms by certain fourteenth
and fifteenth century poets, of whom he became the skilled interpreter.
It was no slight conquest to have been made by a Frenchman who in
1864 came to England unable to speak English. His pen had no trace of
the French accent, and his speech would only to a quick ear betray the
foreigner. His marriage in 1871 with Miss Margaret Marr (now his
widow) no doubt furthered his knowledge of the Scottish vernacular, and
quickened his power of dealing with its ancient phases. Mrs. Amours
thus too has her modest though subsidiary place in the studious successes of
her husband.

Francis Joseph Amours 103

The alliteratives finished, he set himself with accustomed courage and
application to a still longer, although not more difficult, task. Wyntoun,
the chronicler, badly needed editing anew, for historical equally with
philological reasons, and high gratification was felt by the Scottish Text
Society when M. Amours resolved to undertake a parallel double-text
edition from the Cottonian and Wemyss manuscripts, with the variants of
other texts in foot-notes. How steadily he pursued the task, how regularly
the volumes came out successively in 1903, 1904, 1906, 1907, and 1908
(when the text was complete in 2150 pages heavy with footnotes) all critical
students of Scots history and literature are gratefully aware. Promise and
performance went together with this great editor, and beyond doubt, had
not life failed him, he would have brought his studies to the termination in
1911 designed, by the final volume in which the editorial introduction and
apparatus would have set the last seal of his learning on The Original
Chronicle of Andrew of Wyntoun. But he was not to see that end of his
splendid labours : an illness beginning last autumn gradually revealed itself
as mortal, and he died on gth September, 1910, grieving only, he said, to
leave his wife and his Andrew of Wyntoun. Nine days before his death
he was still revising proofs for the New English Dictionary. He had toiled
till the last also at Wyntoun, and one of his last half-conscious utterances
was an exclamation, ' Score all that out ; I have not time to finish it.'
Happily, however, there was actually finished enough of his task of
annotation to make the projected final volume no mere torso, but a
virtually full attainment of his purpose, albeit the invaluable advantage
of his ripest opinion and research is lost, and the chronicle must be shorn
of what would surely have been a critical performance in the discussion of
sources, of literary relationships, and of historical values such as to make the
introduction a standard of modern historical craftsmanship.

While it may be regretted that Scotland did not by a University honour
sufficiently attest her gratitude for an adopted son of such devotion to her
service, there was no lack of either public or private appreciation of his
learning and merit, or of those sterling qualities of character, that plain
* downrightness,' and that fearless independence mingling with all the
clubable virtues which won him his multitude of friends. When in 1904
the French government did itself honour by conferring on this exiled
but most loyal son of France the dignity of Officier de 1'Instruction
Publique he was entertained at a public dinner, organised by the Historical
and Philological Section of the Royal Philosophical Society of Glasgow.
He was then President of that section, in connection with which several of
his too few fugitive papers were written, some of them relative to
Wyntoun as prior of St. Serfs on Loch Leven. One most gratifying
fact of his studies was that his estimate of the old chronicler's personal
worth, historical acumen and fidelity, and capacity of poetic expression
steadily rose as he critically probed his record to find not only constant
and unexpected confirmations of fact but also continual signs of literary
power. Perhaps it was not wholly a fanciful conception which saw in the
industrious and skilful editor, working with calm and orderly precision by
the lamplight at his desk, a vital brotherhood with the chronicler-canon in

1 04 Communications

the scriptorium of St. Serfs. Certainly no aspect of Franco-Scottish alliance
can ever be regarded with heartier satisfaction than that constituted by the
association across five centuries of those two, eminently worthy of each
other, in their united homage to the history of medieval Scotland.

THE SARACEN MERCENARIES OF RICHARD I.

M. Dieulafoy, in his essay upon Chateau-Gaillard (Memoires de I'lnstitut ;
Acadlmle des inscriptions et belles-lettres^ 1898, vol. xxxvi. pt. i. p. 371,
note), has called attention to a passage in one of the continuators of
William of Tyre, in which King Richard is said to have brought away
one hundred and twenty Saracens (Mamelos) from the Holy Land. The
passage occurs in a manuscript of the fourteenth century, which has been
printed as text D in the edition of the so-called Histoire d'Heracles,
published by the Academic des Inscriptions (Recueil des Historiens des
Croisades^ Historiens Occidentaux^ vol. ii. (1859) P- J9^) :

Puis que 1'ost fa venus et le rei ot rescousse Japhe, un grant descort sorst
entre Salahadin et ses amiraus. Dont nos gens ne s'aparsurent jusques a tant
que les Sarasins farent deslogies devant Japhe et alerent herbergier au Chastel
des Plains. Salahadin oi dire que le roi veneit apres lui. II douta son frere
Seif Eddin et les autres amiraus, si ne 1'osa atendre, ains se desloja, et s'en ala
escheriement envers la Surie Sobal, por garnir le Crac et Montreal que il aveient
novelement conquis. Le rei et 1'ost alerent herbergier pres d'un chastel dou
Temple que Ton nomeit la Toron des Chevaliers. Les Bedoyns s'acointerent dou
rei : si pristrent de lui fiance, et li jurerent que il li serviroient leiaument et
espiereent, et li fereient assavoir le covine (?) et 1'estre de Salahadin et de toute la
payenisme, et les Memelos des amiraus oirent parler de la largesse et des dons
dou rei. Chascun qui se corouseit a son seignor, il s'en fuioient et veneient
au rei d'Engleterre. II fa aucune fois que le rei aveit des Memelos bien trois
cens, dont il mena o lui bien cent et vingt Memelos outre mer quant il s'en
parti de cest pays.

The version (D) from which this account is taken comes from a MS.
of the 1 4th century. In the opinion of its editors it is of eastern
origin, like some other continuations of William of Tyre, including the
famous Colbert manuscript, and was written in Cyprus before 1267
(Hist. Occid. ii. p. vii). Although of no value in determining the text
of the original chronicle of Ernoul, upon which, as M. L. de Mas Latrie
has shown (Chronique d* Ernoul et de Bernard le Tresorier, Paris, 1871),
the widespread continuations of William of Tyre are largely based, this
Cypriot version is well and specially informed.1 The allusion to King
Richard's Saracen mercenaries cannot therefore be set aside summarily,
in spite of the fact that it is not found elsewhere. The context is corro-
borated by Beha-ed-din, whose narrative shows that Richard was in close
communication with Saracen prisoners and ambassadors, after the relief
of Jafia on July 3ist, 1192 (Palestine Pilgrims' Text Society's translation
of Beha-ed-din, p. 371 seqq.}. Beha-ed-din also refers to the anger of
Saladin on his retreat to Yazur (the Castle of the Plains). The friend-

* See Mas La trie's Essai de classification (Chronique d° Ernoul, p. 486) for the place
of this MS. in the series of continuators. It is now at Lyons.

The Saracen Mercenaries of Richard I. 105

ship between Richard and the Sultan's brother (El-Adel Saphadin, or Seif
Eddin) is a theme of historians on both sides.

The story that Richard took some Mamelukes away with him is con-
firmed by the Norman Exchequer rolls. On the roll of 1195 the
following entries occur (ed. Stapleton, i. 221):

In liberationibus Saracenorum morantium apud Domfront per preceptum
Regis, a die Lune proxima post festum Sancti Michaelis usque de die lune
post festum Sancti Egidii, c. li. ix. li. vj. so. per breve Regis. . . . Gibelino
Saresceno in solta pertae equi sui 1. so. per idem breve.

Two other entries on this page refer to the Saracens. Again, on
the roll for the year 1198 (ii. 301):

Soubresaillant et Saracenis suis c. li. xxxv. li. de liberatione sua per breve Regis.

Stapleton, whose caution was as great as his general accuracy, regarded
these Saracens as ordinary mercenaries. * The bands of whatever country,'
he says, c who fought for him, were known by the name of Saraceni,
and in this instance [i.e. in 1195] appear to have been Walenm ' (Observa-
tions, i clix.). The word Saracen is certainly found either as a second
name or a nickname in documents of this period. Besides the well-known
chamberlain of St. Louis, Jean Sarrasin, we have the Roman citizen,
Peter Saracenus, whose name occurs frequently in the Patent Rolls of
John (Rot. Pat. ed. Hardy, p. 126, etc.), and the Alexander, son of
William, Sarazein, who was a hostage of John of Courci in 1205
(Rot. Pat. 55b). But the term in its general sense was the usual term
for the Arabs and Turks in Spain, Sicily, and Syria — and there is no
reason to suppose that Richard's Welsh mercenaries were called Saracens.

The names given in the Exchequer Rolls add an element of certainty.
Under the curious Soubresaillant an Eastern name might well lurk.
Fortunately Gibelinus can be traced more definitely. Professor Margoliouth
has been so kind as to inform me that ' persons are known to have
been called Jtbrint' on the ground that they were natives of Bait-Jibrln.
The name Gibelin[us] in Frankish documents is a transliteration of
the Arabic Jibrtn, in * Bait-Jibrin.' Professor Margoliouth adds, 'the
individual to whom you refer may well have come from this place.'

I would suggest, then, that the garrison of Domfront in 1195 contained
some of these Saracens who had been attracted in Syria by the tales of

Richard's generosity.1 _ ,_ _

7 F. M. POWICKE.

The University, Belfast.

1 It is hardly necessary to point out that the presence of Saracens in Richard's
army would help to spread belief in the current stories about the Assassins who
were supposed to be employed by him. Richard would be most likely to use
the mercenaries in siege works and for the manipulation of the Eastern crossbows,
etc., which so attracted him. The Exchequer Rolls give at least one indication
of travellers of another sort in an entry for 1195: * Cuidam feminae moranti
apud Almanesches quae venit de ultra mare x. li. per idem breve' (i. 184).
The phrase * ultra mare ' had almost a technical meaning, to describe journeys
to and from the Holy Land.

106 Communications

THE PILLS OF POPE ALEXANDER. In the Cartulary of
Glasgow in its oldest shape, the Registrum fetus, there were certain
entries, somewhat apart from the business of the See, which Professor
Cosmo Innes in editing the Registrum Glasgueme in 1843 relegated to
an appendix. Amongst them was one very interesting reminiscence of
early medicine, and yet more interesting and mysterious there was a
charm against colic. The latter was the subject of an essay by Dr.
Alex. Tille, who, in Scots Lore, pp. 61-78, discussed at some length the
significance of 'Thebal Guth Guthani,' the words of power which were
prescribed as the posy of a ring to be used contra dolorem ylii. The former
has apparently hitherto escaped examination. The two formulae are
printed on p. 610 of the Registrum, and in the preface, p. liv, Professor
Innes said of them :

* The medical prescriptions against colic savouring shrewdly of art magical,
and the recipe for the famous pills which the Pope Alexander himself had
deigned to use, are at least characteristic and amusing. They are both in a
hand as old as 1200.'

It is the simplest way of treating the matter to reprint here the prescrip-
tion for the pills in order to make clear what follows :

Pilule famose.

Pilule iste confecte fuerunt in presentia nostra quarum species electe erant
et recentes • earum uero commendationes sunt satis famose • videlicet quia
pre omnibus uisum clarificant • auditum corroborant • spiritualia confortant •
memoriam reparant • sanitatem custodiunt • regunt pre omnibus corpus
humanum. Invenimus quod papa Alexander qualibet die eis utebatur •
earum uero recepcio talis est. Recipe calami aromatici • cubebe • nucis
muscate • macis • spice • epithimi • carpobalsami • squinanti • masticis • asari •
gariofilorum • ana • dragmas duas • turbith • colloquintide • ana • dragmas tres •
singulorum mirabolanorum • ana dragmas ij35 • agarici • sene • ana vnciam
seriis • aloen citocrini ad pondus omnium. Confice. De usu uero &
administratione istarum pilularum secundum quod experti sumus dicimus
quod vij • uel • ix • ad quantitatem ciceris uel pisi • in nebulis de quarto • in
quartum cum omni securitate precedente vsu oximellis dare possunt.
Quamuis quidam aliter sentiant dicentes • propter exhibicionem istarum
pilularum dietam assuetam nullatenus esse permutandam. De hora uero
sumendi nulla sit hesitatio quia in nocte ante sompnum instantem debent
sumi.

Not rashly should the layman adventure himself among the physicians
whether in this age or in that of the vague pontiff Alexander, who, lacking
his due ordinal number, may be hard to determine. But the presentment
of a variant will certainly be admissible as an inoffensive commentary on
this prescription, and may supply the best note on the claim of the pill to
clear the eyesight, strengthen the hearing, comfort the soul, repair the
memory, guard the health, and, above all, regulate the human body. Its
variety of ingredients, including calamus root, cubeb, nutmeg, gum, spike-
nard, gillyflower, colocynth, myrobalan, agaric, senna and aloes, may be

The Pills of Pope Alexander 107

taken as an assurance that so many simples would probably not all be in
vain for at least some of the complex aids of soul and body which the
pilule was vaunted to afford.

Written probably at a considerably later date than the Glasgow Registrum
is a miscellany volume in my possession consisting of expositions of theology
and canon law, on 187 folios of paper, 8^ inches by 5^ inches, ascribed by
a former owner to the fourteenth century,1 and probably derived originally
from a German monastery. Prefixed is a fly-leaf, which, like the chief part
of the first leaf, is filled with things which can scarcely be reckoned
theology, and have nothing to do with canon law. With the fly-leaf alone,
and only with a part of that, am I at present concerned. Its first item is a
prescription for a most comprehensive antidote powder : Puluis optimus ad
omnes malos humores consumendos paulatime et successive. Next comes another
powder against flatulence and gross and phlegmatic humours, to warm the
stomach and aid digestion. Item the third is the business of this paper, and
here it is :

Pilule gloriosissimi regis Cycilie quibus utebatur singulis diebus eis
etiam utebatur papa Alexander • pre omnibus • visum clarificant • auditum
corroborant • spiritualia confortant • singulas superfluities expellunt • sani-
tatem custodiunt • humanum corpus ante omnia regunt • accipiantur -vij • uel
ix • de tercio in tercium • uel de quarto in quartum • quibus faciend[is]
omnem mutare dietam • ter • uel • quater • ducunt. Recipe Calami aromatici •
cynamonis cubebe • nucis muscate • spice nardi • macis • carpobalsami •
epythimi • viole • asari • garifiali masticis • oumz omnium mirabolanorum •
ana 3 • ij • turbit coloquintidis • ana • 3 • iij • sene reu • barbari • agarici • ana •
3 • ss • aloes epatici • uel citrioni • ad pondus omnium. Confice ad modum
pise • cum oximelle • uel ut melius seruetur etiam si volueris in magdalione.

It will be at once apparent that the famous pills of Pope Alexander in
the Glasgow Registrum and those he shared with the most glorious King of
Sicily in my codex are the same. Yet the time-honoured privilege of
doctors to disagree is pleasantly illustrated by the fact that the authority in
the Registrum allowed it as a moot point whether the diet of the patient
should be changed, whereas my prescription is definite that it should.
Fortified by the kind advice of a distinguished member of the Medical
Council, I am enabled to state that the pilule is, in modern medical judg-
ment, 'a perfectly good pill.' The profusion of such active drugs as
colocynth, senna, rhubarb (reubarbarum) and aloes must have guaranteed
efficiency, while the mixture with oxymel no doubt helped to make the
pea-like pilule — * or, if you like, pastille ' — palatable. It is right to confess
that the process of editing this prescription has not been carried out with
the scientific severity of actual experiment on the humanum corpus of the
expositor.

aMy own opinion is that the work more probably belongs to the fifteenth
century.

2 This word is expuncted by being underlined. It is proper to state that
I have extended the contractions, and that two or three words have given me
difficulty and are uncertain.

io8 Further Essays on Border Ballads

There remains a slight, yet, as it proves, a by no means whimsical
problem of date and of the identity of the * most glorious King of Sicily '
and the Pope, those high historic personages so strangely associated in the
prescription for the confection of this momentous pill. The king can
hardly have been other than William (son of Roger), King of Sicily from
1154 until 1166, renowned in chronicle (despite his traditional name of
William the Bad) for many victories over the Saracens, and specially and
personally associated, as Villani and older annalists record, with the great
Pope Alexander III. as his ally from 1161 until 1166, during the struggle
for the papacy and against the Emperor Frederick — the schism and strife
which were to drive Barbarossa, in 1177, to that submission to Alexander
at Venice, sometimes reckoned as a second Canossa. In 1161, when the
great contest had just begun, and when Pope Alexander, hard pressed, was
seeking refuge in France, it was William of Sicily whose fleet secured his
passage and supplied him with invaluable sea power. Again, in 1165,
when Alexander was returning to France, he betook himself to Sicily and
the protection of William, who not only gave the venerable pontiff stately
welcome at Messina, but sent him costly presents and furnished him with a
noble convoy of galleys for his return to Rome. Not long afterwards, on
30th April, 1156, William died, bequeathing to his holiness that substantial
proof of friendship, a legacy of 40,000 sterlings. No wonder, therefore,
that he died in good odour with the papal court, and that an old and official
biography, the Vita Alexandra Tertii Papae (first edited by Muratori, and
afterwards prefixed to volume CC. of Migne's Patrologia1) speaks of this
king as Gulielmus illustris et gloriosus rex Siciliaey cujus animam Domino
commendamus.

Thus we may with some security conclude that the gloriosissimus rex
Cycllie of the prescription and the gloriosus rex Siciliae of the papal biographer
are one, and that the pills purport to have rendered corporal and spiritual
comfort to King William of Sicily and Pope Alexander III. Perhaps the
epilogue of history offers dubious, or at least divided, commendation to the
pretensions of the prescription, for although the learned and forceful
Alexander lived to a ripe old age, the pills did not avail to prevent William
of Sicily from dying at forty-six, of dysentery. G. N.

FURTHER ESSAYS ON BORDER BALLADS (S.H.R. vii. 419).
— I scarcely think that Sir George Douglas is right in saying that the weight
of metal is with Colonel Elliot in our discussion about Scott and the Border
ballads. Facts have most weight, and in a little forthcoming volume,
Sir Walter Scott and the Border Ballads, I am able to show that the facts
are very imperfectly known to my opponent. He seems to have over-
looked Laidlaw's evidence as to Auld Maitland, and that of Hogg's letter

1 Patrologia, Migne, vol. 200, p. 30. For other references to this King William
see p. 1 8. It is noteworthy that the epithet gloriosus, above applied to William
the Bad, is never given by the papal biographer to his son William the Good,
devotm beati Petrlfiliui rex Sicifiae. He was only a boy of 1 2 when he succeeded
in 1 1 66.

Saint Maelrubha 109

to Scott of June 30, 1802, with Ritson's to Scott of June 10, 1802, and
Hogg's holograph MS. of the ballad, addressed to Laidlaw.

The evidence entirely clears Sir Walter from the charge of having
been art and part with Hogg in palming off a modern imitation on the
world, while representing it to Ellis and Ritson as a genuine antique.
Such conduct would have been highly dishonourable.

Evidence of the same nature — a long letter to Hogg of Scott's, and
Hogg's manuscript of the ballad of Otterburn — gives the full history of
that poem, and I show exactly how Scott edited it : what he excised,
and what he took from Herd's and Kirkpatrick Sharpe's traditional copies,
with one line from the old English of circ 1550.

In the case of Jamie Telfer and Kinmont Willie, in the absence of
manuscript testimony, I have to rely on ballad lore, on logic, and on
literary criticism, faute de mleux. A. LANG.

SAINT MAELRUBHA (S.H.R. vi. 260-442). The recent litigation
concerning Dunstaffnage Castle has resulted in at least one discovery
of no small interest, viz. in the recovery of the long-lost name and
dedication of the small ancient chapel near Dunstaffnage, now roofless,
where generations of the captains of that stronghold have been laid to rest.
Interested by the difficulty there appeared to be in identifying some of the
land names in the Dunstaffnage Infeftments, the writer of this note
compiled three parallel lists in columns of the nine names which occur
in precisely the same order in deeds of the years 1502, 1585 and 1609.
In the year 1 502 * the pennyland of pengyn Kilmor * is named. In
1585 it appears as 'the pennyland of Kilmorrie alias Clazemorrie'
(Cladh = burying ground in Gaelic), and in 1609 it appears as the
* pennyland of Kilmoir.' As all the other pennylands named are in
immediate proximity to the castle, it is obvious that we have in this name
the long-lost dedication of the ancient chapel belonging to those lands.

* Morrie ' here conceals the famous name of S. Maelrubha, Abbat of
Abercrossan (Applecross), who on his first coming from Ireland was the
founder of a large number of churches in what is the modern county
of Argyll. Mr. Archibald Scott (loc. cit.) has shown how he founded
Kilmarow in Kintyre ; Kilarrow in Islay ; Kilmalrew in Craignish ;
Kilmorrie in Strathlachlan on Loch Fyne ; Cill Mharu on Eilean-an-t-
sagairt, Muckairn ; and Cill Ma'ru in Arisaig. To these I have since
added Melfort in Argyll (vide Papal Registers), and now add as an
eighth Dunstaffnage Chapel alias Kilmorrie.

As Mr. Scott has already remarked, the dates of these first founda-
tions of this great saint's apostolate lie between the years 671 and 673.

I may add that I recently found evidence in the Argyll charter chest
of a long-forgotten chapel dedicated to the Blessed Virgin at Carrick on
Loch Goil, on the altar of which a certain payment of a Reversion is
ordered to be made. It is described as in the Parish of Lochgoilshead,
and was clearly somewhere in the neighbourhood of Carrick Castle, but
I have not yet examined the site.

Kilkatrine, Inveraray. NIALL D. CAMPBELL.

Query

DR. JAMES FEA 'OF CLESTRAIN' (Surgeon in the Royal Navy),
author of Present State of the Orkney Islands, 1775, and Considerations on
the Fisheries in the Scotch Islands, 1783. I should be much obliged for any
information as to the date of death and place of interment of the above
author. Nothing is known in Orkney beyond the fact (mentioned in
Hossach's recent work) that he and his wife Grizel Ross purchased a house
in Kirkwall in 1772. Presumably he did not live there long. His first
book was published at ' Holy-Rood House,' Edinburgh, and his second one
in London — 'printed for the author at Dover J so it is stated in the title
page. At this time he is described as late Surgeon in the Royal Navy.

His name I find is recorded in Steel's Navy List so late as April, 1796,
among the first list of surgeons. I know nothing of his issue beyond the
conjecture that a Henrietta Fea, the daughter of a James Fea of Clestrain,
is said to have been his daughter. She married William Sutherland of
Greenwall, Jamaica, and died in 1806, the same year that she returned to
England or Scotland.

William Sutherland was the grandfather of the late Alexander Malcolm
Graeme, Esq., of Graemeshall, Orkney, but no records unfortunately are
preserved in this family to throw any light upon Dr. James Fea's place of
interment.

There would most probably have been an obituary notice in one of the
Edinburgh papers.

The Doctor's father, James Fea, was first cousin to the James Fea of
Clestrain who captured the pirate Gow in 1725. I should be glad to know
who possesses the original letters which passed between Fea and Gow, or
of any other Fea correspondence addressed from Edinburgh after the date
given above.

ALLAN FEA.

South Lodge, Pinner.

no

Notes and Comments

* THE Historical Association ' does good service by such leaflets as that
issued in June (Leaflet No. 21), being * A Brief Bibliography of „..,..
Scottish History for the Use of Teachers.' This gives an *&i jf
excellent general guide to historical and literary standard
authorities. We welcome such signs of a growing attention

to Scottish history among English teachers.

A MOVEMENT is afoot to clear out and preserve the surviving portions of
the ancient church of Southdean, in Jedforest, Roxburghshire. _
Mr. Adam Laing, 3 Bridge Street, Hawick, hon. sec. of

the committee, is acting as treasurer. We commend the

&- ...

scheme altogether apart from any discussion as to whether

Froissart's 'Zedon,' in his story of the Battle of Otterburn, was
Southdean or was not rather, as some commentators reckon it,
Yetholm. Mr. Laing's circular possibly takes the wisest plan of ignoring
any division of opinion and pronounces unhesitatingly for Southdean,
which certainly lay on the direct road for Otterburn. We trust he will
quickly raise the j£iOO required for the pious object of preserving an
undoubtedly old and interesting church fabric. It will be time enough
after that to discuss any problems of the itinerary of Otterburn.

THE Newcastle Society of Antiquaries in their Archaeologia Aeliana^ edited
by Mr. Robert Blair (Third Series, volume vi. 4to, pp. xliii, .

302) display varied and excellent work for the year 1909. gritt* f
Pedigrees, documents, heraldry, ecclesiology, and Roman Antiquaries
antiquity all find solid contributions. While there are perhaps
fewer entries than usual directly touching Scotland and the Scots, there are
not a few which will repay examination, even when this Northumbrian
register is looked at from the narrowest Scottish standpoint. To begin
with, Mr. Crawford Hodgson, dealing with the ancient owners of Eslington
near Whittingham, on the river Aln, traces the history of the family of
Hesilrig — a name always of interest to us in the North from its part in the
story of Wallace. It is therefore with some surprise that we note the
absence of allusion to William of Hesilrig slain at Lanark by Wallace.
Another Hesilrig somewhat later is found to have been a victim at the

* descomfiture ' of Stirling, meaning thereby, no doubt, the battle of
Bannockburn. The name, we learn, was probably derived from Hazelrig,
in the parish of Chatton, not far from Belford, Northumberland.

in

1 1 2 Newcastle Society of Antiquaries

Mr. Dendy edits a great array of extracts from the De Banco rolls,
which must be a mine of pedigree lore for North England. About six
hundred separate entries reveal many glimpses of litigation by border
families from 1308 down to 1855. The list bristles with names often heard
of in our Scottish history. In some cases both litigants are Scots, as e.g. the
pleas in 1363 between David of Strathbogie, Earl of Athol, and Sir Adomar
of Athol.

No paper in the series, however, represents more creditable study than
Mr. C. H. Blair's long and well-illustrated treatise — The Armorials of
Northumberland: An Index and Ordinary to 1 666. Numerous plates in
colour show arms of Balliol, Fitz-Roger, Grey, and Umfraville and derivative
shields ; there are five plates of shields ; and other illustrations are of
armorial-bearing buildings, such as the gate towers, etc., at the castles
of Alnwick, Bothal, and Lumley. A large body of notes is appended,
in which we observe the suggestion regarding the well-known orle of
the Balliols. 'This shield,' says Mr. Blair, lis possibly canting, adopted
as a play upon their name from the similarity to the ballium of a castle.'
A first prejudice against this suggestion may be to some degree dispelled
by the consideration that balliolum might be a diminutive of ballium^ and
by remembering that the old description of Carlaverock was that it was
like a shield, for it had three sides :

Cum nus escus estoit de taile
Car ne ot ke trois costez entour.

Roll of Carlaverock.

But, notwithstanding, the canting inference seems rather a forced inter-
pretation. On the Umfraville cinquefoil, best known to us here as borne
by the Hamiltons — doubtless a sign of cadency — the suggestion is made
that it originally denoted the herb * bennet,' anciently reputed to have virtue
to put the devil to flight. This one does not find convincing.

Another long paper is a fully illustrated report on the excavations at
Corstopitum (Corbridge) for 1909. These elaborate diggings, while they
have failed to uncover any great and decisive points of direct evidence,
have yielded a very rich return of detail, adding to our knowledge of
the life of a Roman garrison town, and deepening the impression of
lengthened occupancy which all evidences, direct and indirect, unite to
make. Mr. R. H. Forster and Mr. W. H. Knowles give a full and
systematic statement of their work in charge of the excavations. Mr.
H. H. E. Craster continues his methodical report on the coins, among
which is a well-preserved medal of Septimius Severus, struck at Hadriancia
in Hellespontus.

Professor Haverfield summarises the smaller finds, including some pottery
assigned to the age of Agricola, as well as more numerous fragments dating
from the second to the fourth century.

The

Scottish Historical Review

VOL. VIIL, No. 30 JANUARY 1911

Edinburgh in 1544 and Hertford's Invasion1

A CITY set on an hill that cannot be hid. Such is Edinburgh
at this day, and such it has been since some Pictish or other
pre-historic fortress was first built on that crag in the valley,
which seemed to invite fortification, and whose precipitous western
steep has from that day to this glowed in the radiance of the
summer sunsets. On the east a ridge of land slopes down for
about a mile till it finds level ground at the base of Arthur's Seat.
It was on the upper part of this declivity, doubtless, that the first
dwellings, houses we can hardly call them, were built, sheltering
under the walls of the Castle.

Of the development of the town we have but very scanty
record. The houses gradually crept eastwards down the ridge,
and the city proper ultimately ended at a gate called the Nether
Bow Port at the bottom of the High Street. . After the founda-
tion of Holyrood Abbey by King David I., about 1 145, the
Augustinian canons were allowed to build a village near the
Abbey, and this became the Canongate, stretching along the ridge
from the gate above mentioned down to Holyrood. But for long
Edinburgh was a frail little city ; it depended for defence
entirely on its Castle. Even in the fourteenth century, when
there was much desultory warfare between England and Scotland,
Edinburgh is said to have contained only 400 houses, though
other historians place the figures as high as 4000. Whatever
their number may have been, their construction was of the rudest.

1 An address delivered to the Students' Historical Society in the University
of Glasgow, 1 8th November, 1910.

S.H.R. VOL. VIII. H

ii4 Sir J- Balfour Paul

The Earl of Lancaster's invasion of 1384 seems to have been
conducted on lines of great clemency, if we are to believe the
account given by a contemporary chronicler, that that general
allowed the inhabitants of Edinburgh three days in which to clear
out, which they did to such purpose, even carrying off the straw
roofs of their houses, that when the English arrived they found
nothing but bare walls, which, we are told, * grieved the soldiers
not a little.'

The next year, Froissart says, Richard II. of England came to
Edinburgh and stayed there five days, * and at his departing it was
set a fyre and brent up clene ; but the Castell had no hurt, for it
was stronge ynough and well kept.' It was at this time that a
French force arrived under the command of Jehan de Vienne,
Admiral of France, to assist King Robert II. Edinburgh was too
small to hold all the French knights, and, as Mr. Lang puts it,
they were * boarded out ' from Dunfermline to Dunbar. And
they were neither then nor on future occasions received with
much cordiality. The typically independent spirit of the Scots
soon showed itself, and we are told that the people * dyde
murmure and grudge, and sayde, Who the devyll hath sent for
them ? What do they here ? Cannot we mayntayne our warre
with Englande well ynoughe without their helpe ? We shall do
no good as longe as they be with us. ... They understand not
us nor we theym ; therefore we cannot speke togayder ; they
wyll annone ryffle and eat up alle that ever we have in this
countrey ; they shall doo us more despytes and damages than
thoughe the Englysshemen shulde fyght with us ; for thoughe
the Englysshe men brinne our houses we care lytell therefore ; we
shall make them agayne chepe ynough ; we axe but thre days to
make them agayne, if we may gete foure or fyve stakes and
bowes to cover them.' Sturdy Scots !

From all this it may be inferred that Edinburgh at this time
was little better than a defenceless village ; but within the next
hundred years it had improved very much. The Church of St.
Giles, which had been burned by Richard II., was not only rebuilt,
but liberally endowed. In 1450 the city received a charter
from King James granting it the privilege of surrounding itself
with a wall. This wall crossed the West Bow, then the principal
entrance to the city from the west, ran between the High Street
and the hollow in which the Cowgate was afterwards built, crossed
the ridge at the Nether Bow, the eastern entrance to the town,
and terminated at the east end of the North Loch. In 1478 the

Edinburgh in 1544 115

town is spoken of as a very rich place, but of course this must be
taken in a very comparative sense. Still there had been, no
doubt, much improvement, and the presence of the Scottish Court
must have made money circulate to some extent and improved
the general standard of living. After all is said, however,
according to modern notions it must have been rather a squalid
little town. If it was considered dirty in the eighteenth century,
it was then much dirtier in proportion to the size of the town.
It was, in fact, considered a dirty town even according to the
standard of the sixteenth century, which, we may be sure, was not
an exacting one. The poet Dunbar wrote a scathing satire on the
subject.

It is curious to see from it that Edinburgh suffered then from
what has been the misfortune of many Scottish towns ; buildings
were allowed to be erected without any consideration either for
aesthetics (though, of course, the word, if indeed the idea, was not
then known) or public health. The ways were ankle deep in
mud and all kinds of offal. The Church of St. Giles, then
beginning to be quite a handsome and imposing ecclesiastical edifice,
was spoiled by a range of buildings called the Luckenbooths having
been built in the middle of the otherwise spacious High Street.
In this way a filthy lane, open to foot passengers only, was formed
between the buildings and St. Giles. This was called the Stinkin'
Stile, and it effectually prevented, for about two hundred and
thirty years, any view of the really handsome church being
obtained. In addition to this the town swarmed with beggars,
and Dunbar tells us that

' Through streittis nane may mak progress
For cry of crukit, blind, and lame.'

The fatal year of 1513 brought black dismay to the capital
when the news of Flodden was received : but the burgesses had
the same stout hearts as of old, and immediately set about
building a new wall to enclose the larger growth of the city.
Starting from the Nether Bow on the east it embraced the
Cowgate, then beginning to be built, and, on the slope of the hills
to the south, the Priory of the Dominicans ; from there it ran
west along the boundary of the Collegiate Church of Our Lady
in the Fields, afterwards to be remembered as the scene of the
Darnley tragedy ; it then passed near the Maison Dieu, or
poorhouse, with its Chapel of St. Mary Magdalene, the only relic,
as Mr. Bryce states in his excellent account of the wall, now

n6 Sir J. Balfour Paul

remaining of the Pre-reformation religious houses. It then
enclosed the house of the Observantine Grey Friars, and turning
sharply to the north, then west, and finally north again, finished
its circuit at the Castle. The natural features of the locality, the
North Loch and the marshy ground about it, were supposed to
be a sufficient protection on the north side. Such was the area of
the city proper in the years immediately after Flodden, and no
important change took place in it for many years. Outside the
Nether Port the Canongate stretched down to Holyrood, a burgh
in its own right, with handsome houses and pleasant gardens, and
possessing no less than three crosses, that of St. John at the head
of the street, the Market Cross in the middle, and the Girth
Cross near the Abbey. The Canongate had gates, but does not
seem to have been enclosed by any wall, at all events by none of
a defensive character.

But we have one contemporary account which gives an idea of
the size of Edinburgh down to within four years of Hertford's
invasion. This was written by a native of the town, Alexander
Alasius or Alesse, who was born about 1 500 ; as he left the
country in 1532, owing to his having embraced the reformed
faith, the account may not be absolutely up to date, and it is but
a meagre one at best. He mentions Arthur's Seat, the Calton
Hill, which he styles Collis Apri, the hill of the wild boar, and
the Castle. The last, he says, is impregnable and inaccessible
except from the town side ; on the rock ' vultures nidificant,'
probably meaning hawks, and the more daring of the Edinburgh
boys used to harry their nests. He then alludes to the Abbey of
Holyrood, with the adjoining palace of the king lying amid
gardens of great amenity by the side of a lake at the foot of
Arthur's Seat. There are two large paved streets, one he calls the
Via Regia, or High Street, and the other is evidently the
Cowgate. After alluding to the religious houses of the Grey
Friars, the Black Friars, the Church of St. Mary in the Fields, and
the Trinity College Hospital, he tells us that the town was built
not of brick but of unhewn and square stones, and with the
pardonable exaggeration of an exiled native says that the houses
may stand comparison with great palaces. After alluding to St.
Giles* he comes back to the Palace of Holyrood house, which he
describes as * amplissimus et superbissimus.' He mentions the
Canongate as a suburb, and says that the Cowgate, now an
obnoxious purlieu, was the residence of the rank and fashion of
the day.

Edinburgh in 1544 117

It is to be regretted that our author was not gifted with a
more graphic pen ; his description is terse and bald to a degree,
but it is better than nothing and is valuable in a way. It can be
supplemented by references to a very interesting plan or bird's-
eye view of the town taken from the Calton Hill. This has
generally been assigned to the year 1 544, and is supposed to have
been made by some member of Hertford's invading force. Above
Holyrood is written the words * the Kyng of Scottis palas,' a
name which we may suppose it retained, though there had been
no King of Scots for two years before the date mentioned. It
represents the city stretching in two wide streets from the gate
of the Castle, before which is a cannon, down to the Nether Port.
St. Giles' is in the centre of the High Street, quite in its proper
position, and the Church of St. Mary in the Fields to the south, on
the site of the present university. Further east, on the confines of
the town proper, is another church with a pointed steeple, probably
that of the Dominicans or Black Friars. The Nether Port is
shown as a handsome gate with a tower on either side, and
beyond this, stretching down to the Palace, is the Canongate with
trees and gardens to the south. It is curious that all the town
within the walls is represented as having red or tiled roofs, while
the roofs of the Canongate are coloured dark grey or slate colour ;
it is probable, however, that this is intended to indicate that
the houses outside the walls were thatched, and not tiled. The
contour of Arthur's Seat and Salisbury Crags is very fairly
delineated, the immediate foreground being taken up with the
Calton Hill, with five divisions of Hertford's troops marching
across it with banners flying and accompanied by twelve guns.

Such was the town itself in the middle of the sixteenth century,
just before the great invasion. But, we may ask, what sort of
people lived there ? Who were the men who bought and sold,
who loved and laughed, who fought and quarrelled in its streets ?
To reconstruct the locality is easy enough, but to revivify the
people is a more difficult task. It is impossible to guess with any
certainty at the number of the population, but within its rather
narrow limits it was a crowded town, and with all its dust and
other disagreeables, which were not a few, it must have been a
picturesque and stirring scene. Picturesque, that is to say, in our
eyes, and looking at it from our point of view, for I do not
suppose the idea of the picturesque ever entered into the heads of
any of the inhabitants of that day. The dress of the day amongst
the nobles and upper classes was magnificent ; one has only to

ii8 Sir J. Balfour Paul

read the expenses for the royal wardrobe in the treasurer's
accounts to see what a variety of stuffs were used for dresses, and
how handsomely they were ornamented. But all this gorgeous
display, though it must have often lit up with flash of colour the
darkling streets of Edinburgh, was confined to comparatively few
persons.

No doubt a royal cortege or nobleman's retinue often swept
down from the Castle to Holyrood with much bravery of many
coloured silks and velvets and feathers — indeed dress of this sort
was at its best in Scotland in the early sixteenth century — but the
ordinary folks who sold butter at the tron, linen in the lawn-
market, or who kept little shops in crazy little booths, how did
they appear ? Rough, mannerless and somewhat coarse, no doubt,
to our modern minds, characteristics which the march of centuries
has not altogether removed from their successors, but sturdy,
independent and brave; quick to quarrel, as quick to make it
up ; fairly well off on the whole, according to the standard of the
day, but without many luxuries. Living simply on rather scanty
rations, dwelling in dark and dirty houses whose only light at
night was from the primitive and evil-smelling crusie, though
candles were not unknown. They dressed variously ; the lower
classes probably wore a most sensible costume of tunic and belt,
with tight hose and a flat bonnet ; but all classes above the
actual labouring class strove to dress as well as they could. In
the opinion of the government they dressed too well, and the statute
book of parliament is crammed from 1429 down to near the time
of the union with sumptuary laws restricting the right of wearing
certain apparel to a chosen few ; but it is needless to say the laws
were of little effect. A few years later, in 1581, it was solemnly
decreed that considering the great abuse among subjects of mean
estate presuming to imitate his highness and nobility in wearing
costly clothes, no one, under the rank of nobleman or landed
gentleman having 2000 merks or 50 chalders of yearly rent, shall
wear cloth of gold or silver, velvet, satin, damask, taffetas,
fringes, passments, or broiderie, lawn, cambric, or woollen cloth
from abroad. But exceptions were made in favour of the king's
household, judges, advocates and writers, sheriffs, magistrates and
town councillors, heralds and macers; with charming na'ivetJ,
however, the act proceeds to say that servants may wear their
masters' old clothes, and women any headdress to which they
have been accustomed.

Whatever the details of the dress of the mid-sixteenth century

Edinburgh in 1544 119

may have been, they must have had the effect of brightening up
the somewhat sombre streets of the town considerably. The
whole scene must have been stirring : and both sights and sounds
were typical of the time. Little smoke hung about the city ;
coal was no doubt used to some extent, but wood, of which there
was plenty at hand, must have been largely used; Edinburgh
had not yet earned its sobriquet of Auld Reekie.

Most commodities were sold in the open ; shops were compara-
tively uncommon, though, of course, some trades required their
booths. The ring of the sword-slipper's hammer might be heard
issuing out of a dark shed lit by the red glow of his forge ; and
the hollow tap of the cooper's mallet proclaimed the fact that
beer was then the staple drink of the commons. Hatters and
skinners had their booths near the Tron, while shoes were sold
not far off. The flesh market was in the High Street, and
'all paitricks, plovers, capons, conyngs, chekins, and all other
wyld foules and tame' were sold at the Market Cross. Nearer
the Castle, at the Upper Bow, cloth, cotton and haberdashery
might be purchased ; at the same locality there was a tron or
weighing machine for the sale of butter, cheese and wool, while
on Fridays men who had to defend their country (and who had
not in those days ?) or support the cause of their feudal lord might
be seen wending their way to the Grey Friars to try on breastplate
or leathern jack, or choose a serviceable ' joctoleg.'

All through the streets there was a constant stir ; vendors
shouted their wares, beggars whined and exhibited their sores,
clumsy carts jolted over the rough causeway, strings of pack
horses laden with country produce came in from the neighbour-
ing farms, pigs ran about grubbing in the mire, and poultry ran
hither and thither among the legs of the passengers, while you
were lucky if you escaped a drenching from the stoups of water
which were carried by stalwart porters from the city wells into
the dwelling-houses in the streets and wynds. Such was the
Edinburgh of 1 544, when the shadow of the great scourge which
was to come lay over it.

Some of the circumstances which led up to the invasion of
Scotland by the English army under Hertford can be referred to
in a few words. Those of the Scottish nobles who had been
taken prisoner in the disastrous rout of Solway Moss paid the
price of their liberty by agreeing to further to the utmost of their
power the interests of the English king in their country. Henry
desired a marriage between the infant Queen Mary and his eldest

120 Sir J. Balfour Paul

son, the Prince of Wales, a project reasonable enough in itself,
but coupled with conditions that show the low morality and lack
of patriotism of the time. Henry demanded that he should be
acknowledged as Lord Superior of Scotland ; that all fortresses there
should be delivered into his hands ; that the infant queen should
be sent to England till such time as she should attain marriage-
able age. These demands were subsequently modified to some
extent, but they were none the less unpalatable to the Scottish
Parliament. On the other side, Cardinal Beaton, able and un-
scrupulous, represented the National party who supported the
Catholic Church, while there was a strong body, which included
the Governor Arran, who had leanings toward the reformed
faith, and was not averse to the proposed marriage. The latter,
however, chiefly from the inadroit way in which Henry had
pushed his claims, did not long remain inclined to the proposi-
tions of that monarch.

Ultimately, though peace had been proclaimed with England,
and it had been agreed that the English marriage would take
place in ten years, Beaton succeeded in gaining Arran over to
his side, and a council was appointed, the majority of whose
members were in favour of an alliance with France. In January,
1 544, the English lords made a hostile demonstration at Leith,
but Arran and the Cardinal had taken their precautions. The
rebel lords had no artillery, and their only hope was to persuade
the Governor to come out into the open and settle the matter by
force of arms. Arran got his artillery, or some of it, out of the
Castle, placed it on the ridge of the High Street, and the result
was that the English lords had practically to give up their case.
Henry, of course, was furious ; he organized an army under the
command of the Earl of Hertford ; the English Privy Council
gave him orders that he was to burn and destroy, ' putting man,
woman and child to fire and sword, without exception, where any
resistance shall be made against you.' The upper stone of
St. Andrews was to be made the nether, 'spare no creature alive
therein.' The army embarked in a fleet of 200 sail at Tyne-
mouth on ist May, 1544, thus avoiding all chance of interception
on the Borders. But Scotland was not all unprepared. News
of the mobilization of the English ships must have been received
at Edinburgh some time before, as on the 2ist April messengers
had been despatched throughout the country * charging all
manner of men baith to burgh and land to be ready upon twenty-
four hours warning baith to pass upon the Englischmen ' ; and

Edinburgh in 1544 121

two days later letters were sent to all the towns on the south
coast of the Firth, charging the inhabitants thereof { to mak
fowseis (or trenches) for resisting the Englishe mennis navye under
the paine of tinsall of all their gudis ' ; and later still, on the
ist of May, the very day of the embarkation at Tynemouth,
summonses were sent through Fife, Forfar, Kincardine, Stirling,
Clackmannan, and Kinross, ' charging all manner of men between
sixty and sixteen to meet my lord Governor upon the Burgh
Muir of Edinburgh the fifth day of May, to pas upon the
Inglische men.'

This was all too late : on the 3rd of May the English fleet
arrived in the Firth. They dropped anchor opposite the Isle of
May, landed a strong party, and burned the tower of St.
Monans, partly destroying the beautiful church which had been
founded by David II. in 1362 as a thankoffering for having
been freed from a barbed arrow, according to one account, or
for his preservation from shipwreck, according to another. They
also took away with them some small boats which were of
service to them when they disembarked. Proceeding up the Firth
they came to anchor in the lee of Inchkeith.

It is difficult to understand how the Governor and Beaton
did not use every endeavour to dispute the landing of the English
troops. But this chance was not taken advantage of; indeed
not a single effort in this direction seems to have been made,
and the English army, early in the morning of the 4th of May,
was disembarked and safely landed in the short space of four
hours on the coast of Wardie, a little to the east of Granton.
The force formed itself into three divisions, and had with them
some small pieces of artillery drawn by men, the larger guns
being left to be landed later. The first division was under the
command of Lord Lisle, the Lord High Admiral of England,
the second was led by Hertford himself, while the rear guard was
brought up by the Earl of Shrewsbury. They came to the
little estuary of the water of Leith, and there they found their
progress barred by the Governor with, according to a con-
temporary English account written to Lord Russell by one of
the combatants, five or six thousand horsemen, besides some
infantry and some pieces of artillery. It is doubtful whether
the Scottish forces really amounted to so large a number. Be
that as it may, they did not distinguish themselves, and the
whole engagement seems to have been mismanaged by the Scottish
leaders. After a few exchanges of artillery fire the Scots broke

122 Sir J. Balfour Paul

and fled, with the loss of two men only, but several of their
guns fell into the enemy's hands. It is generally said that Arran
and the Cardinal retired to Linlithgow, but the Treasurer's
accounts show that the former was in Edinburgh, at all events on
the 9th, so that if he did go to Linlithgow his stay there must
have been short. The English then proceeded to Leith without
further opposition, though in conformity with the order issued
by the Governor alluded to, great fowseis or trenches had been
dug to defend it. If we are to believe Knox they must have
arrived at a most comfortable time for themselves. They had
landed at high water early on Sunday morning ; the march to
Leith did not take long, even allowing for the feeble attempt
at opposition. Accordingly it was between twelve and one o'clock
when they entered the town, and there, we are told, they l fand
the tables covered, the dinnaris prepared, such abundance of
wyne and victuallis besydes the other substances, that the
lyck ritches were not to be found either in Scotland or in
England.' So says Knox, but I am afraid his language is
that of great exaggeration ; he always lays on his colours with
a heavy brush. Leith was not such a very wealthy or important
place in those days, and it is hardly likely that the good folks who
inhabited the town would prepare their Sunday dinners as if
everything was going on as usual, seeing they must have observed
the passage of the fleet up the Firth and have heard the artillery
firing before the enemy passed the river. But it is curious
to note that the English chronicler of the invasion says that
Leith was found 'more full of riches than we thought to have
found any Scottish town to have been.'

The next day, Monday, was chiefly taken up in landing the
big guns and stores from the ships which were brought into the
New Haven. The day following, Tuesday, leaving Lord Sturton
with 1500 men in Leith, the English commander began his
march on Edinburgh. He probably took the line of what is now
termed the Easter Road, and proceeded over the Calton Hill.
We know this because the army is represented as crossing this
hill in the old map of Edinburgh to which I have alluded.
The inhabitants of the town had rallied under the leadership
of the Provost, Sir Adam Otterburn of Redhall ; a trumpet was
sent out of the town demanding speech with Hertford, and
shortly after Otterburn, accompanied by a few of the burgesses
and two or three officers of arms (perhaps the great Sir David
Lindsay, who was then Lyon, was one) came out and informed

Edinburgh in 1544 123

the general that the keys of the town should be delivered to
him on condition that the inhabitants might go with bag and
baggage and that the town should be saved from fire. Hertford
replied in very truculent terms, and ended by saying that ' unless
they would yield up their town unto him frankly, without
conditions, and cause man, woman and child to issue into the
fields, submitting themselves to his will and pleasure, he would
put them to the sword and their town to the fire.' The plight
of the burgesses was indeed a sorry one ; they were deserted by
their leaders, and had only the Castle to depend upon for
protection. In these circumstances the answer of the Provost
deserves to be remembered for all time. ' It were better,' said
he, ' to stand to their defence than to yield to that condition.'

This account is directly contradictory of another written by a
Scots author, which does not attribute to the Provost such
gallant conduct. In it we are told that the ' toun of Edinburgh
came furth in the sicht ' of the English, * but the Provost, Mr.
Adam Otterburn, betrait them, and fled hame.' It is impossible
to say which is correct, but I should like to believe in the English
version ; and I think had the Provost played so despicable a part
we should have heard of it from the enemy, who loses no oppor-
tunity of chronicling Scottish cowardice.

Hostilities were then begun in earnest. The English account
says that the Lords Bothwell and Home had entered the town
with 4000 horse; but, not liking the situation, had incontinently
galloped out again. As, however, Bothwell was one of the
principal intriguers with the English, this is hardly likely to have
happened. The English seem first to have attempted to pass
through the Leith Wynd Port, which was not one of the gates of
the city, but was at the end of the wynd which led up alongside
the eastern wall of the town to the Nether Bow Port. In this
attempt they were unsuccessful ; so, wheeling to the east, they
marched round to the Watergate, at the end of the Canongate,
near Holyrood. There they met with no resistance, so they
poured in, hauling their guns up the Canongate, not, however,
without some loss, as some cannons had been brought out of the
Castle and mounted in the High Street. According to the
English account, the vanguard of their army did not wait for
the artillery to be brought up, but assailed the Nether Bow Port
sword in hand, drove the town's gunners from the embrasures on
the wall, and kept up such a hot fire with their archers and
arquebusiers that they checked all defence and allowed time for a

124 Sir J. Balfour Paul

battery to be set up over against the gate, which gave way under
three or four discharges from the guns. The enemy then rushed
in, and a hand-to-hand fight in the streets took place. The loss
on both sides must have been severe. The English claim to have
killed 300 or 400 men whom they found in arms, but they did
not escape scatheless themselves, as the citizens sold their lives
dear. One personal incident in the struggle has come down to
us. David Halkerston of that ilk stood at the entry of that wynd
which for 300 years bore his name, and fell, sword in hand, doing
his best for the town of which he was a distinguished burgess.
He and many more cannot but have given a good account of
their prowess, and must have inflicted considerable loss on the
invaders. But they were overborne by force of numbers, and by
the trained and disciplined troops of Hertford. Meanwhile the
Scottish artillery had been withdrawn within the walls of the
Castle, which, under the command of the valiant Captain Hamilton
of Stanehouse, kept up a steady fire down the High Street.
But the English managed to get their guns as far as the Butter
Tron, at the top of the Lawnmarket, and from there shot at the
Castle ; but one of them was dismounted by the Castle fire, so, in
the gloaming of the day, they sullenly withdrew, not without
setting fire to the city in several places.

We can well imagine the consternation which must have
prevailed in the town during this fateful day. We have no
record as to whether there was much slaughter of the non-
combatant inhabitants. No doubt Henry's savage instructions
had been to put man, woman and child to the sword, where
there was any resistance. But, on the other hand, the English
chronicler of the incursion says nothing about a massacre of the
unarmed inhabitants; he only states that they slew 300 or 400
of those whom they found armed. No historian, in fact, either
English or Scottish, makes any mention of a general slaughter.

What probably occurred was this: as the Edinburgh people
beheld the English forces on that May morning defiling over the
shoulder of the Calton Hill, or even on the day before, when they
heard of the reverse which the Governor and his troops had
sustained in the pass of the Water of Leith, it is likely that the
women and children, and all who were physically capable of
moving, seized what of their possessions they could carry, or, if
they had horses, loaded them and made the best of their way out
of the city towards the west and south. What a procession it
must have been ! The old and sick in what carts could be

Edinburgh in 1544 125

pressed into the service ; the women and children carrying what
they could — a mattress, a cooking pot, a bag of oatmeal, a few of
the more valued and most portable of their household gods.
Some would take their way along the edge of the swampy ground
that led to the lake and village of Corstorphine, guided, if night
overtook them on their journey, by the lamp which was placed
on the end of the old Collegiate Church there, where the
Forrester tombs, still existing, were already placed ; others would
strike further south, and go up the wooded banks of the Water
of Leith and through its deep depths to the little village of
Colinton, or, as it was then called, Hailes. Among these fugitives
were likely to be seen the family of the Provost, Sir Adam
Otterburn, whose place of Redhall was close by. Many of the
fleeing crowd would go still further and seek in the green vales of
the Pentlands that shelter and safety which was denied them
nearer home. All this is a mere theory, but probably some-
thing of the sort took place. The crowd, in thus flying from
the doomed town, were in no great danger. The English
were strangers to the country, and, even had they so desired,
would have found some difficulty in pursuing them. To
the north of the town, the side from which the English
approached, the North Loch and marshy ground effectually
prevented any advance ; while to the west the same conditions of
morass and swamp prevailed, rendering any pursuit difficult, if
not impossible, except for those who knew the narrow and
perilous ways, and had used them from infancy.

All night long the rising flames from the blazing town lit up
the darkness. The next day and the next and the day after that
there came bands of English from the camp at Leith, c and began
where they left off,' burning and plundering till the sack of the
city was complete. It is needless to say that Holyrood did not
escape. The Abbey Church was more or less destroyed and
ruthlessly ravaged. Amongst the loot then carried off two
articles can be traced. Sir Richard Lea of Sopwell, who appears
to have been in command of the English pioneers, and as such
particularly responsible for the general destruction which occurred,
carried off a brazen font and the beautiful lectern of the Church.
On the former he caused an arrogant inscription to be engraved,
of which the following is a translation :

( When Leeth, a toune of good account among the Scots, and
Edinburgh their cheefe Cittie, were on a fire, Sir Richard Lea,
knight, saved me from burning and brought mee into England.

i26 Sir J. Balfour Paul

And I beeing mindfull of this so great a benefit, whereas before
I was wont to serve for the baptising of none but Kings children,
have now willingly offered my services even to the meanest of
the English nation — Lea the victor would have it so. Farewell.
In the year of our Lord 1 544 and the reign of King Henrie the
Eighth 36.'

The font and lectern were both presented by him to the
Church of St. Albans, Hertfordshire. The font, originally a
gift to Holyrood of Abbot Bellenden, was destroyed in the
English civil wars and melted down. The lectern, however, still
remains at St. Albans. It consists of a brass pillar with mould-
ings, on the top of which is a ball surmounted by an eagle with
outstretched wings. Its total height is five feet seven inches, and
the spread of the eagle's wings is almost two feet. It is a very
handsome piece of ecclesiastical furniture, and its connection with
Holyrood is proved by the occurrence on it of four shields, each
charged with a lion rampant, of a bishop's mitre and crosier, and
of the words Georgius Crichton, Episcopus Dunkeldensis.

Crichton was provided to the Abbey of Holyrood so early as
1500, and was appointed Bishop of Dunkeld on or before 1526.
He must have presented the lectern to his old Abbey after he
became Bishop of Dunkeld. It is impossible that the English
can have taken it from the latter place, as they were never so far
north, so that it is practically certain that the lectern belonged to
Holyrood. The Bishop had a house or official residence in
Edinburgh on the south side of the Cowgate, so that no doubt
he often attended the services in his old church, and took a
continued interest in it. He was fortunate in not living to see
the spoliation of his gift, as he died in the January previous to
the English invasion, a very aged man. The King's Palace did
not escape from the general ruin, and it is said that Norris of
Speke Hall, Lancashire, carried off the books from the library
of James V., including four large folios, said to contain the
Records and Laws of Scotland at that time. But though there
are entries in the Treasurers' accounts of various books having
been supplied to the Scottish kings, I do not know that any of
them, save perhaps James I., and in a lesser degree James IV.,
were of a very literary turn of mind or accumulated much of
a library.

Notwithstanding all this wanton destruction, Scotland's cup of
bitterness was not yet full. There being nothing more left to
destroy in Edinburgh save the Castle, which proved too strong

Edinburgh in 1544 127

a nut for the invaders to crack, they, being reinforced by 4000
light cavalry which had arrived from the Borders, turned their
attention to the surrounding country, which, according to the
English accounts, they devastated within a radius of seven miles,
and left ' neither pile, village, nor house standing unburnt.'
Corn and cattle were carried off, and much of the stuff which
the flying inhabitants had carried out of the town. An absolute
rot seems to have set in amongst the Scots. The beautiful and
strong castle of Craigmillar which, it might be thought, was
capable of strenuous defence was, we are informed by a Scottish
chronicler, ' hastilie geven to the English, promesand to keep
the samyne without skaith : quhilk promeis thai break and
brunt and destroyit the said hous.' But this was only one
item in the wholesale destruction that went on ; there is a list
of some thirty-three towns, or castles, or houses, which were
devastated at this time.

Having done as much mischief as they could, the English
force at last prepared to leave. As a final piece of brutality
they broke down the pier of Leith * and burnt every stick of
it.' They carried off the * Salamander ' and the * Unicorn,' two of
the best ships in the small Scottish navy ; they loaded other
prizes besides their own boats with booty, and letting them sail
away, prepared to return south by land. Meanwhile the whole
of the country on both sides of the Firth had been ravaged,
the fortress on Inchgarvie destroyed, and all the boats either
burned or taken away. Finally, on I5th May, Leith was given
over to the flames, and the army began their march south.
Coming to Seton they burned Lord Seton's house there, ' which
was right fair : and destroyed his orchards and gardens which
were the fairest and best in order that we saw in all that country.'
It is, perhaps, doubtful whether this was the Seton Palace near
Tranent or another seat of the family, Winton Castle. The
latter was built by that George, Lord Seton, who died in 1508 ;
he was a great horticulturist and the flower beds in the garden
were surrounded by a hundred painted wooden towers or temples
surmounted by gilt balls. A historian of the family says that
in the garden * I have seen fyve scoir torris of tymber about the
knottis of the flouris : ilk ane twa cubite of hicht, haveand twa
knoppis on the heid ane above ane uther, als grit even-ilk ane
as ane rowboull overgilt with gold : and the schankis thairof
paintit with divers hewis of oylie colours.'

Haddington met with the same fate ; Dunbar seems to

i28 Sir J. Balfour Paul

have attempted some resistance, but their fate was even worse.
Having watched for the enemy all night, and perceiving them
in the act of breaking up their camp in the morning, the inhabi-
tants thought themselves safe and went to bed ; but a force was
detached from the English army, and succeeded in setting fire
to the town, and * men, women and children were suffocated
and burnt.'

On the morning of the i jth May, in a thick easterly ' haar,'
the English found themselves at Pease Pass and discovered that
it was held in force by a party of Scots under the Earls of
Buccleuch, and Home, and Lord Seton. Here at last, one would
have thought, was a chance for the Scots. What really happened
we do not know ; we have only the English account of it.
According to that their army calmly waited for the weather to
clear, which it did about two in the afternoon, and then set
forward in battle array. Far from meeting any determined
resistance, it seems that the Scots abode but two shots of a
falcon, and then scaled every man his own way to the high
mountains, which were hard at their hands, and covered with
flocks of their people. We are told that the pass was so narrow
that notwithstanding the fact that there was no resistance, the
English army took three hours to defile through it. The
paralysis of the crowds on the surrounding heights is incredible
and inexplicable. Having got through that dangerous passage
the army had nothing further to fear, and after doing some
further damage in the destruction of the tower of Renton they
arrived at Berwick, where they were met by the ships which had
sailed round from Leith.

So this particular invasion of Scotland ended. It was not to
be the last, if perhaps it was the worst. In the words of a modern
historian — * unless we may find some parallel in Tartar or African
history to the career of this expedition, it will scarce be possible
to point to any so thoroughly destitute of all features of heroism
or chivalry.' According to the English account, the total loss in
their army was under forty. What it was on the Scottish side is
impossible even to guess at, but it must have been very large,
and included not only fighting men, but women and children.
The loss of life must have been great, but the wanton destruction
of property must have been greater still. The burnt lands lay
untilled and uncared for for years. The only things that escaped
complete destruction were the churches, which generally seem to
have been let alone. St. Giles' does not appear to have been

Edinburgh in 1544 129

harmed. Newbattle Abbey was, however, burned, but its ruin
cannot have been complete, as three years afterwards it was
the meeting place of a convention held by the Queen Dowager.
St. Monans in Fife suffered a good deal, and the nunnery at
Haddington was burned.

But the end was not yet. Scotland was still to suffer much
from the fury of the English king ; and only a month after
Hertford's return to England another expedition under Sir Ralph
Evers harried the Borders, captured and garrisoned the Abbey
of Coldingham, burnt Jedburgh and destroyed Melrose, and
generally worked havoc in the country. But in February, 1 544~5>
the Governor and Angus got together a sufficiently large force,
met the English near Jedburgh, at Lilliart's Cross, or as it is
more frequently called, Ancrum Moor, and inflicted a crushing
defeat on them, the leaders, Sir Ralph Evers and Sir Brian
Layton, besides many other leading Englishmen, being killed in
the engagement. Arran and Angus, it is said, overcome with
joy, fell weeping into each other's arms.

Subsequent events are not within the scope of this paper — the
coming of the French allies, the disastrous battle of Pinkie, and
the peace that closed a nine years' war in 1550. It left Scotland
exhausted and embittered to a terrible degree, bitterness which
had showed itself in some regrettable acts of brutality in the
Border fighting. But Scotsmen had suffered dreadfully. Border
warfare there always was, but it was conducted on understood
principles, and there was very little personal feeling about it.
The various English expeditions, however, changed all that, and
both invaders and invaded became savage in their warfare.

Scotland suffered as she did during this period because she was
not true to herself. Her leaders were divided into two parties.

On the one side were the English lords, as they were called,
who were prepared to carry out Henry's scheme as to the
marriage of the infant queen, if not to go further and acknow-
ledge his arrogant claims to the suzerainty of the country. It is
possible to understand their view : the marriage between the
queen and an English prince would unite the country under one
crown, and was in itself commendable, especially when considered,
as we can, in the light of subsequent events ; and as to Henry's
claim to suzerainty, such of the Scottish nobility as had been in
England, and many of them had as prisoners of war, must have
been struck with the prosperous, orderly, and settled state of the
country, where both lordly castle and peaceful grange had an air

130 Sir J. Balfour Paul

of fixity and comfort which was sadly absent in the faction-rent
country of their birth. They may have argued, Better a settled
government under a strong king than independence with the
ever-present fear of finding your house beset by enemies and
your roof tree blazing overhead. All this may have been wrong,
was indeed wickedly and traitorously wrong in the eyes of many
of their countrymen ; but it is understandable.

On the other side, there was a strong patriotic party, the
position taken up by which, with regard to the proposed marriage
of their queen with the English prince, is well illustrated by a
conversation which has been recorded between Sadler, the English
ambassador, and Sir Adam Otterburn, the Provost of Edinburgh,
at one time King's Advocate, and reputed to be one of the wisest
men in Scotland. Sadler was discoursing on the benefits which
would ensue to the two kingdoms if the marriage took place,
when Otterburn interrupted him by asking : c Why think you
that this treaty will be performed ? ' ' Why not ? ' said Sadler.
* I assure you,' replied Otterburn, * it is not possible, for our
people do not like it. And though the Governor and some of
our nobility, for certain reasons, have consented to it, I know
that few or none of them like it ; and our common people utterly
dislike it.' Sadler said he could not understand this, considering
that God's providence had given England a young prince and
Scotland a young princess, by whose union in marriage * these
two realmes, being knytte and conjoyned in one, the subjects of
the same, which have always been infested with the warres, myght
live in welth and perpetual peas.' ' I pray you,' Otterburn
replied, 'give me leave to ask you a question : If your lad were
a lass, and our lass were a lad, would you be so earnest in this
matter ? Could you be content that our lad should marry your
lass, and so be king of England ? ' Said Sadler : * Considering
the great good that might come of it, I should not show myself
zealous for my country if I did not consent to it.' * Well,' said
Otterburn, 'if you had the lass and we the lad, we could be
well content with it, but I cannot believe that your nation would
agree to have a Scot to be king of England. And, likewise, I
assure you that our nation, being a stout nation, will never agree
to have an Englishman to be king of Scotland ; and though the
whole nobility of the realm would consent to it, yet our common
people and the stones in the street would rise and rebel against it.'

Such were the principles of the great mass of the Scottish
people. Flodden had not crushed them, and they were as deter-

Edinburgh in 1544 131

mined as ever to be independent of the southern kingdom. At
the head of the patriotic party was the great Cardinal Beaton —
the infamous cardinal, if you like to call him so — fighting, no
doubt, in his own interests and in those of the Church, of which
he was certainly no ornament. But he was at the head of the
national party, and the nation, you will remember, had not yet
broken from the old Church. His associates were determined
that, come what might, Scotland would not subject herself to the
rule of an alien king ; and they opposed strenuously, to the best of
their power, all his schemes, and spurned all projects of ultimate
union between the two countries. He was backed up, as Mr.
Andrew Lang points out, by the patriotic feeling of the great
mass of the people, by the influence of the Queen Dowager, by
the tradition of the country, and he could rely on the support of
France for whatever that was worth. In resisting the English
claims, we may at least give him credit for unrivalled tenacity,
unwearying resolution, and great political courage. He had
much against him, but he won in the end. But it was the last
fight of the old faith. Soon the country adopted the principles of
the Reformation, which lives like his did much to bring about.
The union of the crowns came in the natural course of events.
Scotland, ' under God's providence,' as Otterburn expressed it,
instead of being put under the foot of an English king, gave
hers to England. So the way was opened to the more modern
history of our great kingdom.

J. BALFOUR PAUL.

Jacobite Songs

THE little collection of Jacobite songs here reprinted is
only known to exist, as far as I can learn, in a single
copy, now in the Library of the British Museum. The verses are
more rude but more vigorous than those in Loyal Songs (1750),
published without printer's name or name of place : that volume
is not very scarce. It will be observed that many of the most
poetical Jacobite verses, such as ' It was a' for our rightful
king,' appear neither in the printed collection of 1750 nor in
that of 1779. Burns, Lady Nairne, and other singers represent
merely sentimental and hopeless Jacobitism ; while several pieces
in our collection are later modifications of verses sung in honour
of James III. and VIII. The latest here is doubtless the third,
of 1772, the date of the marriage of Charles III. to Louise of
Stolberg. The collection does not contain the Jacobite version
of Auld Lang Syne.

The Notes offer more particular remarks : I may here repeat
that, while comparing The True Loyalist with Hogg's versions
and notes in Jacobite Relics, I have been confirmed in my opinion
that Hogg was, as in the case of what he gathered in the way
of ballads for Scott, a much more honest editor than he is
commonly supposed to have been.

A collection of Jacobite contemporary songs in Gaelic, with
literal translations in prose, down to the beautiful Lament on
the death of Charles, would be of much literary interest. From
the few examples which friends have translated for me, I am
led to suppose that the Celtic Muse is much more poetical
than that of the * Eminent Hands ' who contribute to The
True Loyalist.

ANDREW LANG.

Jacobite Songs 133

THE TRUE LOYALIST;

OR,

CHEVALIER'S FAVOURITE

BEING A COLLECTION OF

ELEGANT SONGS,

NEVER BEFORE PRINTED.
ALSO, SEVERAL OTHER

LOYAL COMPOSITIONS,

WROTE BY EMINENT HANDS.

PRINTED IN THE YEAR M,DCC,LXXIX.

THE ROYAL OAK TREE

(To the Tune of The Mulberry Tree)

YE true sons of SCOTIA together unite,
And yield all your senses to joy and delight ;
Give mirth its full scope, that the nations may see
We honour our standard, the great Royal Tree :

All shall yield to the Royal Oak Tree :

Bend to thee,

Majestic tree !

Chearful was He, who sat in thee.
And thou, like him, thrice honoured shall be.

When our great Sov'reign C — s was driv'n from his throne,
And dar'd scarce call the kingdom or subjects his own,
Old Pendril, the miller, at the risk of his blood,
Hid the King of our isle in the king of the wood.

All shall yield, etc.

In summer, in winter, in peace, or in war,
'Tis acknowledg'd, with freedom, by each British tar,
That the oak of all ships can best screen us from harm,
Best keep out the foe, and best ride out the storm.

All shall yield, etc.

134 Andrew Lang

Let gard'ners and florists of foreign plants boast,
And cull the poor trifles of each distant coast ;
There's none of them all from a shrub to a tree,
Can ever compare, great Royal Oak, with thec.

All shall yield, etc.

[Hogg gives, in Jacobite Relics, Series i. p. 10, a copy all but identical with this
version. ' It was taken from a curious collection of ancient MS. songs in the
possession of Mr. D. Bridges, Junior, of Edinburgh. It is probably of English
origin. . . .' For

' Honoured was he who sat in thee,'
our version has ' Chearful.' There are slight variations in Stanza HI.]

A SONG

ON a bank of flow'rs on a summer's day,

Where lads and lasses met ;
On the meadow-green, each maiden gay,

Was by her true-love set ;
Dick fill'd his glass, drank to his lass,
And C — 's health around did pass :

Huzza! they cry'd, and a' reply* d,
" The Lord restore our K—g." "

To the King, says John : Drink it off, says Tom,

They say he's wond'rous pretty :
To the Duke, says Will : That's right, says Nell :

God send them home, says Betty :
May the Pow'rs above this crew remove,
And send us here the lads we love :

Huzza/ they cry'd, etc.

The liquor spent, to dance they went ;

Each youngster chose his mate :
Dick bow'd to Nell, and Will to Moll ;

Tom chose out black-ey'd Kate.
Name your dance, says John; Play it up, says Tom,
May the King again enjoy his own :

Huzza! they cry'd, etc.

G — e must be gone, for he can't stay long,

Lest cord or block should take him ;
If he don't, by Jove, and the Pow'rs above,

We're all resolv'd to make him :
Young G — e too must his dad pursue,
With all the spurious plund'ring crew :

Huzza! they cry'd, etc.

Jacobite Songs 135

[Hogg (Relics, i. 49) has a version with historical differences. In Stanza i. Jamie's
health, not Charlie's, is drunk. In the second stanza they drink to the Queen
and the Prince ; in ours to the King and the Duke. Hogg's lines apply to
James VII., Mary of Modena, and the Prince of Wales ; ours to James VIII.,
Prince Charles, and his brother Henry, Duke of York. Our final stanza, on
George I. and his son, is not in Hogg, whose version is obviously earlier than
the accession of the House of Hanover. Hogg's is the version in A Collection of
Loyal Songs, printed in the year 1750.]

A BIRTHDAY ODE
(September 2i//, 1772)

Do thou, my soul, with steady patience wait,
'Till God unvail his firm resolves of Fate :
Then C — s shall reign, possess'd of ev'ry grace,
And fair L — a brighten ev'ry face
With rising branches of a royal race.

Fly hence, despair ! thou bane of happiness !
Let chearing hope each faithful heart possess :
Toss round the glass with joyous mirth and mein,
And gladly sing, God save the King and Queen :
Bless them with children virtuous and fair :
May they be ever heaven's peculiar care.

[The birthday apparently of Louise of Stolberg, wife of Charles III.]

A SONG

(Tune : An thou wert mine aln thing)

DIVINELY led thou need'st to be,
Else you had ne'er come o'er the sea
With those few friends who favour'd thee,
And dearly they did love thee.

Thy fortitude sure none can shake ;
A crown and glory is thy stake ;
And God thy trust, who soon can make,
Ev'n they who hate thee, love thee.

Fame shall reward thy clemency,
Whilst Gladsmuir-green is near the sea ;
And the triumphant victory
Gain'd by the Clans that lov'd thee.

Go on, great P — ce, ne'er fear thy foes,
Though hellish plots they do compose ;
The gods themselves do them oppose,
And smile on those who love thee.

136 Andrew Lang

Thy great ancestors do look down
With joy to see themselves outdone
By a young Hero of their own,
Begetting who's most lovely.

O happy Scotland ! shall thou be
When Royal J — s reigns over thee,
And C — s, our P — ce, who favours thee,
And dearly ay will love thee.

[This was apparently composed in the hopeful period between Preston Pans and
the Retreat from Derby.]

A SONG

THOUGH G — die reigns in J — ie's stead

I'm griev'd, yet scorn to shew that ;
I'll ne'er look down, nor hing my head

On Rebel W — gs for a' that ;
But still I'll trust in Providence,

And still I'll laugh at a' that ;
And sing, He's o'er the hills this night

That I love weel for a' that.

He's far 'yont Killebrae this night

That I love weel for a' that ;
He wears a pistol on his side,

Which makes me blyth for a' that :
The highland coat, the philabeg,

The tartan-trouze, and a' that,
He wears, that's o'er the hills this night,

And will be here for a' that.

He wears a broad-sword on his side,

He kens weel how to draw that ;
The target, and the highland plaid,

And shoulder-belt, and a' that :
A bonnet bound with ribbons blue,

A white cockade, and a' that,
He wears, that's o'er the hills this night,

And will be here for a' that.

The W — gs think a' that Willie's mine

But yet they maunna' fa' that ;
They think our hearts will be cast down,

But we'll be blyth for a' that,
For a' that, and a' that,

And thrice as meikle's a' that ;
He's bonny that's o'er the hills this night,

And will be here for a' that.

Jacobite Songs 137

5ut, O ! what will the W — gs say syne,

When they're mista'en in a' that,
When G — die maun fling by the crown,

The hat, and wig, and a' that ;
The flames will get baith hat and wig,

As oft times they got a' that :
Our highland lad will wear the crown,

And ay be blyth for a' that.

And then our brave militia lads

Will be rewarded duly,
When they fling bye their black cockades,

That hellish colour truly.
As night is banish'd by the day,

The white will drive awa' that ;
The sun will then his beams display,

And will be blyth for a' that.

[Hogg's version (Relics, ii. 56) 'is copied from Mr. Moir's MSS.' There are
considerable variations throughout : our version has six stanzas, Hogg's only five.
The version in Loyal Songs (1750) is more akin to Hogg's. The period is
after the Retreat from Stirling, possibly after Culloden.]

A SONG

(Tune : To ease his heart, and own his shame)

THE P — ce did venture once to land,
With seven under his command,
For to conquer Nations three ;
That's the man shall govern me.

Justly may he claim the crown
His brave ancestors wore so long ;
Though they thought fit to banish thee,
The Restoration I hope to see.

It was a curs'd usurping crew

That from the true K — g took his due,

And sent him far across the sea ;

J — s the Seventh, the same was he.

They J — s the Seventh away did send,
How could that infant them offend ?
That he too banished must be,
To 'reave my native P — ce from me.

But his brave son in battle bright
Shall recover what's his right ;
All the Clans shall fight for thee ;
Glorious C — s shall govern me.

138 Andrew Lang

Fierce as a lion uncontrol'd,
As an angel soft and kind,
Merciful and just is he ;
Glorious C — shall govern me.

[This appears to be a version of Hogg's second set of To daunton me (Relics,
ii. 87). For our first verse the last four lines of Hogg's first stanza give

* At Moidart our young Prince did land,
With seven men at his right hand,
And a' to conquer kingdoms three,
That is the lad shall wanton me ! '

Hogg's third set is by far the best and most poetical. All forms show the
variations which are the note of popular songs and ballads. Hogg's third set,
if merit be a test of age, ought to be the oldest. It has no reference to Prince
Charles, King James is the expected hero, and 1688 and 1689 are fresh in
the poet's memory.

* To daunton me, to daunton me,

D'ye ken the thing that wad daunton me?

Eighty eight and eighty nine.

And a' the dreary years sinsyne,

With cess, and press, and Presbyt'ry ;

Gude faith, this had like to daunton me.

But to wanton me, to wanton me,

D'ye ken the thing that wad wanton me !

* To see gude corn upon the rigs,
And banishment to a' the Whigs,1

And right restored where right should be ;

O, these are the things that would wanton me.

But to wanton me, to wanton me,

And ken ye what maist wad wanton me ?

To see King James at Edinburgh cross,

Wi' fifty thousand foot and horse,

And the usurper forced to flee ;

O, this is what maist wad wanton me !

From this version, obviously the oldest, the three others have, in most stanzas,
departed for the worse.]

JAMIE THE ROVER

OF all the days that's in the year,
The Tenth of June I love most dear,
When roses and ribbons do appear;
Success to young Jamie the Rover.

Fal deral, etc.
1 Various reading : * And a gallows built to hang the Whigs.'

Jacobite Songs 139

All in green tartan my love shall be drest,
With a diamond star upon his breast,
And he shall be reckon'd as one of the best ;
Success to young Jamie the Rover.

Fal deral, etc.

As I came in by Lanark town,

The drums they did beat, and the trumpets did sound,

The drums they did beat, etc.,

To welcome young Jamie the Rover.

Fal deral, etc.

There's some who say he's bastardly born,
And others who call him a bricklayer's son ;
But they are all liars, for he's the true son
Of him call'd Jamie the Rover.

Fal deral, etc.

There is in London a huge black bull,
And he would devour us if he had his will,
But we'll toss his harns out over his skull
And drive the old dog to Hanover.

Fal deral, etc.

I need not wonder at Nature's change,
Though he abroad be forced to range,
I'll find him out where'er he remains,
Young Jamie you call the Rover.

Fal deral, etc.

To foreign lands I'll straight repair,
There to find out my dearest dear,
For he alone is all my care
Young Jamie you call the Rover.

Fal deral, etc.

In his Royal Arms I'll lay me down,
In remembrance of the Tenth of June,
And all my pleasure I will crown
With Jamie you call the Rover.

Fal deral, etc.

Though all my friends should me despise,
Yet to his praise my voice I'll raise,
For he's a jewel in my eyes,
Young Jamie you call the Rover.

Fal deral, etc.

140 Andrew Lang

J. and S. I must confess
The thistle and crown, his motto is ;
Of all the swains he deserves the praise,
Young Jamie you call the Rover.

Fal deralj etc.

[Hogg has a version of this pleasant song for the White Rose king. His first
verse, in the second three lines, reads

* In tartans braw our lads are drest,
With roses glancing on the breast.'
Where ours has

'All in green tartan my love shall be drest,
With a diamond star upon his breast.'1

In Hogg, * Auchindown ' takes the place of our ' Lanark town ' (a Whiggish and
Covenanting centre). Auchindown, says Hogg, is a ruined castle in Glen
Fiddorn, in Banffshire, a Jacobite place mentioned in another song :

' At Auchindown, the tenth of June,
Sae merry, blythe, and gay, sir ! '

This song (ReRcs, i. 80) is, in the last stanza, of the later Jacobite period. The
poet is ready to fight for

* Our Jamie and our Charlie.''

Our Jamie the Rover is of the period of the youth of James III. and VIII. , and, in
fact, appears to regard James II. and VI. as ' Jamie the Rover.'
Hogg, as to * the great black bull,' reads :

'We'll twist his horns out of his skull,'
whereas our text has

4 But we'll toss his hams out over his skull,'

* hams' meaning brains.

Both versions are contaminated by references to ' the old rogue ' or ' old dog '
in connection with Hanover. In short, we have here variants of a song perhaps
dating from 1716, but altered in various ways to suit new circumstances, and
arranged by singers or copyists.]

A SONG

PR — CE C — s is come o'er from France,

In Scotland to proclaim his daddie ;
May the heav'n's pow'r preserve and keep

That worthy P — ce in's highland plaidie.

O my bonny, bonny highland laddie,

My handsome, charming highland laddie,

May Heav'n reward, and him still guard

When surrounded with foes in's highland plaidie.

1 The king himself.

Jacobite Songs 141

First when he came to view our land,
The graceful looks of that young laddie,

Made a' our true Scots hearts to warm,
And choose to wear the highland plaidie.

O my bonny, etc.

But when G — die heard the news,
That he was come before his daddie,

He thirty-thousand pounds would give
To catch him in his highland plaidie.

O my bonny , etc.

He sent John C — pe straight to the North,
With a' his army fierce and ready,

For to devour that worthy P — ce

And catch him in his highland plaidie.

O my bonny, etc.

But when he came to Inverness,
I told him he was South already,

As hold's a lion conqu'ring all,
By virtue of his highland plaidie.

O my bonny, etc.

From Inverness to Aberdeen,

Where he found their ships just and ready,
To carry him to Edinburgh,

For to devour him in's highland plaidie.

O my bonny, etc.

But when he came to Edinburgh,

East Lothian was his first land ready ;

And then he swore that in Gladsmuir,

He wou'd devour him in's highland plaidie.

O my bonny, etc.

A parcel of Scots highlanders,

And country lads that were not ready,
The task is small you have to do,

To catch him in his highland plaidie.

O my bonny, etc.

Our worthy P — ce says to his men,

For God's sake, haste, and make you ready,

And gratify C — pe's fond desire
He hath to see me in my plaidie.

O my bonny, etc.

Likewise says he unto his men,

This day if you'll fight for my daddie,

142 Andrew Lang

By heav'n's pow'r I'll set you free
From tyrants, in my highland plaidie.

>-» r

O my bonny, etc.

Then they went on like lions bold,

Without regard to man or baby,
For they were bent with one consent

To fight and keep him in his plaidie.

O my bonny, etc.

John C — pe cries then unto his men,

For God's sake, haste, and make you ready ;

And let each man fly as he can,

For fear he catch you in his plaidie.

O my bonny, etc.

Some rode on horse, some ran on foot,

And some, wi' fear, their heads turn'd giddy ;

And some cry'd, Oh ! and some, Woe's me !
That e'er I saw a highland plaidie.

O my bonny, etc.

When C — pe was then a great way off,

He said, Since I was a young babie,
I never met with such a fright

As when I saw him in's highland plaidie.

O my bonny, etc.

[This is a shorter variant of Hogg's O my Bonnie Highland Laddie. Hogg takes
it 'from Mr. Hardy's MSS., collated with that from Mr. John Wallace of
Peterhead' (Relics, ii. 115, 335). There are many variations. The subject is the
strange march of Cope to Inverness while the Prince was entering Edinburgh, and
the victory of Prestonpans.]

A SONG

MY Grand-Sire had a riding mare,

And she was ill to sit,
And by there came an airy blade,

And slipped in a foot.
He put his foot into the stirrup,

And gripped sickerly ;
And ay since syne, she's prov'd unkind,

And flung and gloom'd at me.

When my Grand-Father was deth — n'd,
And put from Nations Three,

Jacobite Songs 143

There was not a single plack of debt,

And all accompts were free.
But now the cr — wn's in debt, aboon

One Hundred Millions and Three ;
I wonder what ails the wicked beast

To have such spite at me.

When William fell, and brain'd himsel',

They call'd my Aunty Ann;
Give me the mare, the riding gear,

The halter in my hand ;
Then peace and plenty will abound,

Throughout the Nations Three ;
We'll drive them up with whip and spur,

Because they slighted me.

Preston-pans, Falkirk, and Inverting,

These were battles three ;
But at Culloden we were all defeat,

And forced for to flee.
The poor men they were all defeat,

Fled to the mountains high ;
You may be sure my heart was sore

When none could stay with me.

But one poor maid, with gown and plaid,

Convoy'd me through the isles ;
By heaven's care I was preserv'd

From all their crooks and wiles :
Then into France as by ill-chance,

Though I was welcome there,
The cruel darts of th' usurper's arts,

Did still pursue me there.

I hope to God that I will mount,

My brave ancestor's th — ne ;
And then I will attended be

By lords of high renown.
My brother Henry will likewise be

Honour'd as well as me ;
And we'll make the W — gs change their notes,

And turn their tunes to me.

They gave the Qu — n the cordial drop

To hasten her away ;
And then they took the cursed oath,

And drank it up like whey ;
Then they sought the Brunswick race

Which we may sorely rue :
They got a horse, a cripple ass,

A Cousin German Sow.

144 Andrew Lang

[There are seven stanzas here in place of four in Hogg's version (Relics, i. 82).
In Hogg's text the father, not the grandfather, of the speaker tries the mare ; the
speaker is James VIII., not Prince Charles. The absurd scandal about the
poisoning of Queen Anne is in our seventh, but in Hogg's second stanza. Our
song has no 'sow' (some German mistress of George). The remarks on the
national debt caused by our Dutch deliverer is not in Hogg's version (our
stanza n.), and the allusions to Prince Charles's victories and to Flora Macdonald
in our song are absent from Hogg's. The generation of 1745 has retained and
expanded a chant of the generation of 1715.]

A SONG

OVER yon hills, and yon lofty mountains,

Where the trees are clad with snow,
And down by yon murm'ring chrystal fountain,

Where the silver streams do flow.
There, fair Flora sat complaining,

For the absence of our K — g,
Crying, Charlie, lovely Charlie,

When shall we two meet again ?

Fair Flora's love it was surprising,

Like to diadems in array ;
And her dress of the tartan plaidie

Was like a rainbow in the sky ;
And each minute she tun'd her spinnet,

And Royal Jamie was the tune,
Crying, C— s, Royal C — s,

When shalt thou enjoy thy own ?

When all these storms are quite blown o'er,

Then the skies will rend and tear,
Then C — s he'll return to Britain

To enjoy the grand affair :
The frisking lambs will skip over,

And larks and linnets shall sweetly sing:
Singing, C — s, lovely C — s,

You're welcome home to be our King.

[There may be some connection between this too artless ditty about Flora
Macdonald and Hogg's Lament of Flora Macdonald (Relics, ii. 179). Hogg says
that he got the original of the Lament l from Mr. Niel Gow, who told me they
were a translation from the Gaelic, but so rude that he could not publish
them. . . . On which I versified them anew,' says the honest Shepherd,
*and made them a great deal better without altering one sentiment' (Relief,
ii. 369).

The original Gaelic may have been excellent : our version is, at least, unpre-
tentious, but Hogg's is too conscientiously noble and sublime, though it has
been popular as a song : and has a Gaelic substratum.]

Jacobite Songs 145

A SONG

THE K — g he has been long from home,

The P — ce he has sent over
To kick th' usurper off the th — ne,

And send him to Hannover.

O'er the water, o'er the sea,

O'er the water to Ck — lie;
Go the world as it will,

We'll hazard our lives for C — lie.

On Thursday last there was a fast,

Where they preach'd up rebellion ;
The masons on the wall did work,

To place around their cannon.

O'er the water, etc.

The Wh — gs in cursed cabals meet,

Against the Lord's Anointed;
Their hellish projects he'll defeat,

And they'll be disappointed.

O'er the water, etc.

Sedition and rebellion reigns

O'er all the B — tish nation ;
Why should we thus like cyphers stand

And nothing do but gaze on ?

O'er the water, etc.

Brave Britons rouse to arms, for shame,

And save your K — g and nation ;
For certainly we are to blame,

If we lose this occasion.

O'er the water, etc.

The P — ce set out for Edinburgh Town,

To meet with C — pe's great army ;
In fifteen minutes he cut them down,

And gain'd the victory fairly.

O'er the water, etc.

[Comparing this song with Hogg's text (Relics, ii. 76) we ask, is ours the
unworthy original, improved by Burns and Hogg into the best of loyal poetry ;
or is ours quite a distressingly different set of words to the same tune ?
Hogg's version, except for the last stanza, is, with slight verbal changes,
No. 187 in Johnson's Museum, Vol. ii. (1788). Hogg says, 'I do not know if
the two last stanzas have ever before been printed, though they have often been
sung ' (Relics, ii. 290). The penultimate verse appeared, as Hogg should have
known, in Johnson's Museum (ut supra). If Mr. Henderson is right in saying
* Hogg's set is merely Ayrshire Bard (in Johnson) plus Ettrick Shepherd,' then

K

146 Andrew Lang

the Shepherd, in the last stanza, wrote the most perfect verse in the whole of
Jacobite poetry. The ardent sincerity of loyal self-sacrifice was never worded so
well. Cf. Henderson, in his and Henley's Bums, Vol. iii. p. 328. The chorus,
and stanza i., in both Hogg's and the Museum's versions, seem to me popular and
traditional ; the third may be by Burns ; the fourth, if not Hogg's, is popular and
traditional. I myself think that Hogg dealt fairly with what he collected, whether
songs in the Relics, or ballads for Scott's Minstrelsy. His letters to Scott, with
ballads (June 30, 1802; September 10 [1805]), are candid and explicit; he tells
the Sheriff how he collected, what he got 'in plain prose' mixed with broken
stanzas, and how he harmonised them. He is equally candid in what he says of
The Lament of Flora Macdonald, already quoted from the Relies ^\

A SONG

(Tune : Nansy's to the Green-wood gane)

YE W — gs are a rebellious crew,

The plague of this poor nation ;
Ye give not God nor Caesar due,

Ye smell of reprobation :
Ye are a stubborn, perverse pack,

Conceiv'd and nurs'd by treason,
Your practices are foul and black,

Your principles 'gainst reason.

Your Hogan-Mogan foreign things

God gave them in displeasure ;
Ye brought them o'er and call'd them k — gs,

They've drain'd our blood and treasure.
Can ye compare your King to mine,

Your G — die and your W — lie ?
Comparisons are odious,

A docken to a lilie.

Our Darien can witness bear,

And so can our Glenco, Sir ;
The South Sea it can make appear

What to our King we owe, Sir :
We have been murder'd, starv'd, and rob'd,

By those your k — gs and knav'ry ;
And, all our treasure is stock-jobb'd,

While we groan under slav'ry.

Did e'er the rightful St — t's race,

Declare it if you can, Sir,
Reduce you to so bad a case, —

Hold up your face and answer :
Did he who ye expell'd the throne

Your islands ever harass so,
As those whom ye have placed thereon,

Your Brunswick and your Nassau ?

Jacobite Songs 147

By strangers we are rob'd and kill'd,

That ye must plainly grant, Sir,
Whose coffers with our wealth are cramm'd,

Whilst we must starve for want, Sir.
Can ye compare your K — g to mine,

Your G — die and your W — lie ?
Comparisons are odious,

A bramble to a lilie.

Your P — ce's mother was a whore, —

This ye cannot deny, Sir ;
Or why liv'd she in yonder tour,

Confin'd there 'till she died, Sir.
Can ye compare your Queen to mine ?

I know ye're not so silly ;
Comparisons are odious,

A docken to a lilie.

His son is a poor matchless sot,

His own papa ne'er lov'd him :
And F — kie is an idiot,

As they can swear who prov'd him.
Can ye compare your P — ce to mine,

Your F — kie and your W — lie ?
Comparisons are odious,

A mushroom to a lilie,

[This is a version of Hogg's The Rebellious Crew (Relics, i. 112). Hogg copied
this song from an ' old printed ballad which I found among Mr. Walter Scott's
original Jacobite papers' (Relics, i. 284). Hogg probably softened the language
of our stanza vi., and, in the third line from the end, wrote

'A thing so dull and silly,'
in place of our

* Your Feckie and your Willie.']

A SONG

AND from home I wou'd be,
And from home I wou'd be,
And from home I wou'd be,

To some foreign country.
To tarry for a while,
'Till heav'n think fit to smile ;
Bring our K — g from exile

To his own country.

God save our lawful K — g,

And from danger set him free ;

May the Scots, English, and Irish,
Flock to him speedily :

148 Jacobite Songs

May the ghosts of the martyrs,

Who died for loyalty,
Haunt the rebels that did fight

Against their King and country.

May the Devil take the D — tch,

And drown them in the sea,
Willie butcher, and all such,

High-hanged may they be.
Curse on the volunteers

To all eternity,
Who did fight against our P — ce

In his own country.

May the rivers stop and stand

Like walls on ev'ry side;
May our highland lad pass through ;

Jehovah be his guide.
Lord, dry up the river Forth,

As thou didst the Red sea,
When the Israelites did pass

To their own country.

Let the usurper go home

To Hanover with speed,
And all his spurious race

Go beyond the seas.
And we'll crown our lawful King

With mirth and jollity ;
We'll end our days in peace

In our own country.

[Hogg's version is a charming song, 'bearing strong marks of the hand of the
ingenious Allan Cunningham.' It is perfectly modern in tone. Our version may
have been sung at Avignon, Sens, and many other asylums of the exiled Jacobites.]

Two Glasgow Merchants in the French
Revolution

DURING the Revolutionary Era the French Republic ex-
tended to the persecuted democrats of Great Britain and
Ireland as hearty a welcome as Louis XIV. had accorded to
the Jacobite exiles. Thus there gradually came together in
Paris a band of discontented ' Patriots,' mostly English and
Irish, but including some Scots, whose presence served to con-
firm the idea prevalent in France that nothing was wanting to
set up separate republics in the United Kingdom but the
appearance of French forces in London, Edinburgh, and Dublin.1
The late Mr. Alger in his Englishmen in the French Revolution
brought together some curious facts regarding the life of this
colony in Paris. The adventures of two Glasgow merchants,
as revealed in the documents preserved in the Public Record
Office, London,2 and the French Foreign Office, Paris,3 not
only add some touches to his interesting sketch, but also
throw fresh light on the condition of affairs at home which
sent not a few Scots into voluntary or enforced exile.

During the period 1795-1798 to which the documents refer,
Scotland lay at the feet of its de facto king, Henry Dundas.
The French Revolution evoked considerable enthusiasm in Scot-
land. The members of the Dundee Whig Club were among
the first to congratulate the French nation on the advent of
the new regime^ and Glasgow sent £1200 to the National
Assembly. The industrial class awoke to a sense of its political
rights, and, organised in societies known as Friends of the

1 The ' Scotch Directory ' was to consist of Muir, Sinclair, Cameron, Simple
[Lord Sempill ?], a Sorbelloni [sic]. Ferguson [Adam Ferguson ?] was to be
Minister for Foreign Affairs, Macleod [M.P. for Inverness] for War, and
Campbell [the poet Campbell ?] for Marine, v. Hist. MSS. Comm., Dropmore
MSS., vol. 4, 1905, pp. 69 and 70.

2 Home Office (Scotland) Correspondence, vol. 1 6.
* Archive^ Correspondance Politique, vol. 592.

150 Henry W. Meikle

People, agitated for parliamentary reform. Some of the wilder
spirits, however, did not conceal their desire for even greater
changes in the constitution, and as the drama of the French
Revolution developed into tragedy, all projects of reform at
home were denounced as revolutionary. The dread thus in-
spired in the middle and upper classes enabled Dundas not only
to repress all democratic activity throughout the country, but
also to win support for the war against France, and for those
arbitrary measures which reduced the government of Scotland
to the despotism which bears his name. Whoever ventured to
dispute the wisdom of such a policy was branded as a Democrat,
a Croppy, or a Black Neb, imbued with French principles.

Yet although the democrats were effectively silenced, the
following narrative affords one proof that they continued to
cherish their opinions in secret ; and the undercurrent of
discontent with the existing state of affairs thus preserved
among the industrial class, coming to light in the Radical War
of 1819, contributed one element to the victory of reform
in 1832.

About the end of May, 1798, the Sheriff-Depute of Edin-
burgh informed the Duke of Portland that two brothers, John
and Benjamin Sword, had been arrested on a charge of holding
improper communications with the enemy. John was appre-
hended on board a vessel in Leith bound for Embden, and
his brother Benjamin at Glasgow. Failing to give a satisfactory
account of some letters seized at the same time, they were
confined to prison till they should do so. 'They are both
wealthy,' wrote the sheriff, ' having retired from trade at
Glasgow, the one as a Spirit and Muslin Manufacturer, the
other a Tea China man, and notwithstanding their success in
trade are both dissatisfied with their country and anxious to
settle themselves somewhere else.'

The reasons for the dissatisfaction were partly family but
largely political. In a letter to a friend in America, dated
Langside House, December, 1795, John Sword, after detailing
some family matters which had occasioned him much distress,
proceeds to give his opinion of the political state of Scotland
at that time. * I see there will be new matter springing in
our nation of great magnitude, which will produce events more
momentous to the nation at large, until at last they produce
a Revolution as compleat, though I hope not so sanguinary,

Glasgow Merchants in France 151

as that in France, the wonder and admiration of all nations on
Earth. ... I am therefore now resolved to give you a letter
with a few of my remarks on the volutions gone and going on
through our nation. . . . Had the Government and order of
things in this country been as they were 20 years ago, I
would have been in business ere now, but such a change has
taken place within these few years as seldom has to any country.
Our newspapers which you no doubt frequently see will have
shewn you into what a state of Sin and Misery this blessed war
has brought us. The numberless additional taxes to enormous
amount, and to crown the matter the progress our Ministers
have made in Arbitrary government is infinitely beyond what-
ever could have been supposed to happen in this country
formerly a land of liberty. It would tire your patience to
enumerate in the most concise manner a tythe of our late
oppressions. This very last week a Bill has passed making it
felony to complain of any part of the Minister's conduct,
although it can clearly be made appear that a family that
expends ^250 per ann. pays above £100 taxes. It is far from
improbable a civil war may soon be the baleful consequence.
Were the few lines I have now wrote on this subject exhibited
to our gracious, upright, and infallible Mr. Pitt, I would have
reason to congratulate myself if I came off as easy as Mr.
Muir or Mr. Palmer by a 14 years' mission to Botany
Bay. My family affairs with those of a public nature have
made me resolve not to hasard the remains of my property
in trade in this country. I have long wished to see North
America but never had it so much in my power as at present,
and I am now almost resolved to see it in the ensuing summer.'
In his next letter, dated 3<Dth January, 1796, he still talks of
going to the New World, * where,' he says, f I may spend the
remainder of my life free from that weight of oppression that
hangs like a millstone round the neck of this devoted country.
You cannot imagine with what vast strides this country is pro-
gressing to destruction, the numberless arbitrary laws enacted by
our Ministry to shield them from the effects of their guilt.
Our national debt is now between 3 and 400 millions Sterling.
The interest paid on that is above 1 6 millions. If it is reckoned
what expense attends the collection of it, it will be found
4 millions more. This is sunk to all Eternity. To this add
the maintenance of our civil list, including all the expensive,
very expensive, squandering members of it, and you will have

152 Henry W. Meikle

a sum equal to the rent of the whole landed property in
Britain. And yet this is exclusive of our necessary expenses
of Government, of places and pensions, etc., etc. Of the extent
and amount of these last, the best arithmeticians, the most
inquisitive accomptants, and the most expert clerks are ignorant.
The sum is incomprehensible. The number of pensioners with
the amount they receive is quite unknown. That the sum
is astonishing is well known, for these very pensions that
cannot be kept hid from the public — and it is a well-known
fact that not one fourth part of the pensions are published,
perhaps not one tenth — demonstrate to what amount the
whole may be conjectured. Here one person gets £60,000 or
£70,000 p. annum, another £30,000 or ,£40,000, many £25
and £20,000. Great numbers from £5 to £15,000, and these
of less consequence are innumerable. The Government of our
country is now so outre that extortion and imposition cannot
be checked. Every article is taxed in twenty different shapes.
Instance the article of Stamp paper. 20 years ago and less
this duty was comprehended within 7 or 8 articles. At present
there are 89 articles and on these 7 or 8 articles which were
formerly taxed, the tax is now 3, 4, and some of them ten-
fold advanced. This it only one instance among many.
Almost every species of our manufactures are taxed. The con-
sequence is very visible to every person that will indulge a thought.
The indefatigable industry of the British Nation will weather the
storm a little. It cannot be long. Our Government now in
a manner despotic — for can it be called anything else when it
is publicly known beyond contradiction that members buy
seats in Parliament for a majority of these members, and this
majority pass any law that Pitt chuses to propose ? — I say,
this Despotic Government of ours requires such immense
treasure to preserve the despotism, to bribe the numberless
dependant tribes, that our industry is thereby swallowed up, and
it must very soon pass to destruction and like the baseless
fabric of a vision leave not a wreck behind.1 Already the
wages of every branch of manufacture is very much enhanced
and yet the poor artificer can scarcely live. ... I do not

1 The Edinburgh Whigs held equally pessimistic views regarding the fate of their
country. Hence the significance of the title, 'The Pleasures of Hope,1 by the
official poet of the Whigs, Thomas Campbell. On his return from abroad in
1801 he too had to make a declaration before the Sheriff of Edinburgh to clear
himself of the suspicion of being a spy.

Glasgow Merchants in France 153

pretend to prophecy, but from the situation in which we are
circumstanced, and from which we cannot disengage ourselves,
I will bett all I am worth in the world this must happen
within 20 years, and it would not in the least surprize me
were my prognostications to take effect in one fourth part of
that time.' In a letter to the same friend, dated loth
October, 1796, he still harps on the burden of taxation.
Manufacturers could not pay the taxes. This had brought the
3 Per Cents down from 96 before the war to 56, and it was
expected that the next loan would bring them down to 40.
When the peace came there would be such emigration to
France and America as would depopulate the country, and
give the finishing stroke to the public credit.

We learn nothing further of the two brothers till their arrest
in 1798. Rumours of an expected invasion by the French,
and of plottings by the society of United Scots, kept the
Government officials in a state of nervous apprehension ; and
when it was known that John Sword was setting out for the
continent, probably for France, which, it was affirmed, he
and his brother had visited the previous year, the two were
promptly arrested. It was not difficult for them to invent a
story of adventure not too improbable for those troublous times.
According to John's first declaration, he was on the road to
Germany where he intended to settle with his wife and child.
It was true that he and his brother had been abroad in
August, 1797, but they had not been in France. They had
visited various towns in Germany. At the end of March or
the beginning of April, 1797, they had left Greenock for
Charlestown in South Carolina. The vessel was taken by a
French privateer called the ' Vengeance ' about the 1 7th May. A
prizemaster was put on board and the vessel sailed for Nantes.
Off the coast of Ireland, however, they were retaken by the
British frigate c Apollo,' and carried into the Cove of Cork.
This narrative was declared by them in their second declarations
to be 'a cock and bull story,' and in their third declarations
they each gave, with slight variations, a more or less veracious
account of their wanderings in France.

The two brothers sailed from Leith for Hamburg at the
end of August, 1797. On their arrival at Hamburg they
purchased their admission as burgesses with a view to enabling
them to proceed to France. Acting on the advice of friends,
they tried to pass themselves off as Americans or as connected

154 Henry W. Meikle

with America. The ambassador, however, refused to give
them passports. They therefore proceeded to the Hague,
where they obtained passports for France. 'After two trials
they got to Paris via Dunkirk and Lisle.' Thence they went
to Nantes via Tours. The two merchants had learned that
English goods brought into that port by French privateers were
selling very cheap, especially coffee and sugar, and they hoped
by making large purchases for America to realise a consider-
able profit. There was one serious drawback to such a business
venture. No one would insure the goods, as they were very
liable to be retaken the moment they left the port by the
same privateer from whom they had been purchased. A more
profitable speculation was to be made in land. At Tours
' Emigrant ' property was selling at three or four years' purchase,
Church lands at six years', and patrimonial property at nine or ten
years' purchase. Money could be borrowed at three, four, and
five per cent. John Sword, according to his brother's story,
was ' exceedingly keen ' to become the possessor of a convent,
a church, and a dozen acres of land at the low price of £700.
The iron and lead of the buildings alone would have made up
the price. Benjamin, however, persuaded his brother to have
nothing to do with it, and after three or four weeks' stay in
Nantes they left for Paris.

During their sojourn in the capital they called on Thomas
Paine, * not from any previous knowledge of him,' John was
careful to add, * but merely out of curiosity.' Paine informed
them that Thomas Muir was in Paris, and they paid him a visit,
having known him as a student in the University of Glasgow.
v Muir appeared to live in style and kept his carriage.' l During
an evening spent in the company of Paine and Muir,2 a long

1 On 3 1st August, 1793, Muir was sentenced by the High Court of Justiciary
of Scotland to fourteen years' transportation to Botany Bay for sedition in
connection with the Society of the Friends of the People. He escaped from
Sydney on nth February, 1796, and after almost incredible adventures, arrived
at Bordeaux in December, 1797. He was ostentatiously welcomed by the French
Directory, who granted him a pension. In a begging letter to the Minister for
Foreign Affairs, Muir explained that the loss of one eye, and the imperfect vision
of the other, necessitated his keeping a carriage (Archives, vol. 590, £ 144).

2 In the British Museum collection of coins and medals a farthing, inscribed
*The Three Thomases, 1796,' represents Thomas Paine, Thomas Spence (a
publisher of Paine's works), and Thomas Muir hanging on a gibbet. On the
reverse is the legend, ' May the three knaves of Jacobin Clubs never get a trick.'
t>. The Writings of Thomas Paine, ed. M. D. Conway, vol. iii. p. xi.

Glasgow Merchants in France 155

discussion ensued on religion ' which Paine reprobated, while
Muir endeavoured to defend it.' Benjamin Sword even affirmed
that Muir was intoxicated on that occasion. This led to the
breaking up of the party, and prevented Muir from keeping
his promise of introducing the brothers to the notorious Miss
Williams, then living in Paris as the wife of Stone.1

Thanks to the proverbial clannishness of their race, the
Glasgow merchants were introduced to another Scot, a certain
Mr. Rose. A gardener by trade,2 his master's influence had
secured for him the post of usher to the Constituent Assembly,
and he had served in the same capacity the succeeding assemblies
of the period. Under his guidance the Swords visited the
Council of the Ancients, and the Council of Five Hundred, and
were present at the Iriili of the Directory ' to which every one
was admitted.' Rose informed them 'that he was the person
who had been sent by the Convention to apprehend Robespierre,
which he accordingly did and gave them many particulars
respecting the business.' He talked with great freedom regarding
the Convention and said that he expected another convulsion.
The usher dropped a hint that he might serve his country and
make some money by giving information. On being asked if
he knew Mr. Rose of the Treasury, he smiled and said that
Mr. Rose knew him, and waived the subject. At the end of a
month the brothers left for Scotland via Dunkirk, where they
met another type of the ubiquitous Scot in the person of a
Mr. M'William, originally from Ayr.

Two letters in the Archives of the French Foreign Office
complete our knowledge of the Swords. One is addressed to
' Citoyen Graham a Paris,' presumably a Glasgow man, the other
to Thomas Muir. In the former, John Sword takes as gloomy
a view as ever of the state and prospects of his country. ' The
fate of Britain is wearing nearer and nearer its crisis. New taxes
come out every day, not by the channel of the House of
Commons, but by the fiat of the Privy Council. Every one
of them fall short of what it was taken for and new ones are
framed to make up the deficiency, which also fall short of their
intention. All ranks, even the creatures of the Ministry, are
now complaining of their burdens. This voluntary gift which
has made so much noise has been as great an oppression as the

1 v. sub voce John Heerford Stone, Diet. Nat. Biog.

2 ' It is from Scotland,' said Voltaire, * we receive rules of taste in all the arts —
from the epic poem to gardening,' Hume Brown, Hist, of Scot., vol. iii. p. 371.

156 Henry W. Meikle

most oppressive of the taxes ; for in the first place every creature
of Government is obliged to subscribe largely and they are
indefatigable in forcing others to subscribe, threatening them
with ruining their business, their trade, and interest, if they
do not, and many who have persevered in refusing to subscribe
have actually been ruined by the malice of Pitt's vermin. They
have influenced all the public and private banks, so that thousands
of traders who cannot pay their bills are forced by their bankers
to put down their names to this gift, and threatened not to get
a single bill discounted if they do not. The soldiers and sailors
are likewise compelled to put down their names to this famous
gift, and thousands of names appear in the newspapers as
Patriotic contributors to this gift who curse the ministry (the
authors of it), curse the purposes to which it is applied, and
would give twice the amount of their subscriptions to bring
the heads of the ministers to the block. But this is no news
to you. Citizens John M'Kenzie, John Pattison, John Monteith,
and a hundred more in Glasgow would give all the cloaths on
them to be as clear of the country as you and I are.

' The manufactures are much in the decline, and if the French
Republic could stop them from Hamburgh, and the American
and West India markets, they might soon make what sort of
a peace they pleased. The whole nation would be in arms, and
indeed nothing prevents this just now but unabated efforts of
the ministers bribing the landed Gentlemen to act against their
own interest. I need not tell you that if the War Establishment
continue two years longer in England, the Bank of England
paper will be of as little value as the lowest price of American
or French paper ever was, and it is in the power of the French to
hurry on this event by a method which I could clearly point out.'

In the other letter dated Embden, 3ist August, 1798,
15 Fructidor, an 6, to Thomas Muir, he gives a full account
of his sufferings, and reveals more regarding his visit to Nantes
than he had communicated to the Sheriff-Depute of Edinburgh.
* I have endured a part of the persecution you so unjustly
suffered. I have occupied the same apartments in Edinburgh
Jail which you have done before me and have been put to great
inconveniences with my family and to great expenses. But I
thank God all the malice of my persecutors have not been able
to prevent me from securing as much of my property as to
enable me to carry on my plan of my muslin manufactory upon
a moderate scale, or even to live with oeconomy upon the remains

Glasgow Merchants in France 157

of the fruits of my industry without emerging again into bustle,
labour, and anxiety.' He goes on to relate that he was set at
liberty for six months, bail being fixed at 4000 merks. Owing
to the strenuous exertions of his advocate, Mr. Henry Erskine,
he had been allowed to proceed to Germany to look after his
affairs. The Lord Advocate had promised that if nothing further
appeared against him he would not be brought to trial, but that
if he was to be tried, Mr. Erskine was to advise him in due
course. ' The only thing they can prove against me is my
having been in France contrary to law, but my intentions, or
any conversation I had with my work people about going there,
I trust will not be discovered ; so that if no action is commenced
against me by the 29th of November, my bail bond is then
discharged, and I fly to the glorious land of liberty, justly
the admiration of Europe and of the whole world.' His purpose
in writing to Muir was to use his influence with the French
Government to help him in another unlucky piece of business.
The ship by which he had intended to reach Embden at the
time of his arrest had sailed without him, had been captured
by a French privateer, and carried into a Dutch port. There
the cargo, including Sword's belongings, had been condemned.
This he held to be unjust, as they were not contraband seeing they
were intended for France. The prizemaster, however, had taken
the goods ashore, and most of them had probably been Embezzled
by the motley crew of renegadoes from Asia, America and
Europe — not one Frenchman among them.' His plan of setting
up a muslin factory in France made him anxious to secure
his property. 'When I was in Paris,' he writes, 'you may
perhaps remember that I acquainted you I had applied by a
petition to the Minister of the Interior stating my intentions
of erecting a muslin manufactory1 at Nantes, and requesting

1 During Muir's visit to Paris in 1793, the government spy in Edinburgh
credited him with having bought ground on behalf of seven proprietors of a cotton
mill in the West of Scotland. The machinery and workmen were to be removed
to France. Home Office (Scotland} Correspondence, vol. 7, March, 1793, P.R.O.,
London. The idea was doubtless taken from Paine's Rights of Man, which had an
enormous circulation in Scotland at this time, especially among the industrial
classes. * France and America bid all comers welcome, and initiate them into all
the rights of citizenship. . . . There is now erecting in Passey, three miles from
Paris, a large cotton factory, and several are already erected in America. Soon
after the rejecting the Bill for repealing the test-law, one of the richest manu-
actors in England said in my hearing, " England, Sir, is not a country for a
dissenter to live in — we must go to France."' The Writings of Thomas Paine,
ed. M. D. Conway, vol. ii. p. 328, author's footnote.

158 Henry W. Meikle

permission to go to Scotland to settle my affairs, to collect
and bring my property to France, to engage a few of my
best tradesmen to teach these in Nantes, and to return myself
with my family and furniture. The Minister gave me leave
to go to Hamburgh via Calais and Dunkirk, to go to Scotland
via these, and to return by Hamburgh.'

These two letters were duly forwarded to the Minister for
Foreign Affairs ; but further documents are lacking to reveal
whether John Sword was successful in his suit, or whether he
was forced to join his brother Benjamin in his native city, there
to remain under the hated rule of Pitt and Dundas.

HENRY W. MEIKLE.

Chronicle of Lanercost1

WHEN the Scots heard of the sudden and unexpected
retreat of the English after Easter,2 they set themselves
down before the castles of Scotland which were held by
the English, to besiege them with all their force, and A'D' I29 '
through famine in the castles they obtained possession of them
all, except Roxburgh, Edinburgh, Stirling, and Berwick, and a few
others ; and when they had promised to the English conditions
of life and limb and safe conduct to their own land on sur-
rendering the castles, William Wallace did not keep faith with
them.

Meanwhile, truce was made between the King of France and
the King of England, and the king returned to England, and
finding how the Scots had risen in his absence, he assembled an
army and directed his march towards Scotland, and having entered
that country, he passed through part thereof.

So on the festival of the blessed Mary Magdalene 3 the Scots
gave him battle with all their forces at Falkirk, William Wallace
aforesaid being their commander, putting their chief trust, as was
their custom, in their foot pikemen, whom they placed in the
first line. But the armoured cavalry of England, which formed
the greater part of the army, moving round and outflanking them
on both sides, routed them, and, all the Scottish cavalry being
quickly put to flight, there were slain of the pikemen and
infantry, who stood their ground and fought manfully, sixty
thousand, according to others eighty thousand, according to
others one hundred thousand ; 4 nor was there slain on the
English side any nobleman except the Master of the Templars,

1See Scottish Historical Review, vi. 13, 174, 281, 383 ; vii. 56, 160, 271, 377 j
viii. 22.

2 6th April. 3 2 2nd July.

4Walsingham estimates the loss of the Scots at 60,000, Hemingburgh at
56,000 — both preposterous figures, far exceeding the total of Wallace's forces.
The only trustworthy data whereby to estimate the English losses is found in the
compensation paid by King Edward for 1 1 1 horses killed in the action.

160 Sir Herbert Maxwell, Bart.

with five or six esquires, who charged the schiltrom of the Scots
too hotly and rashly.

Having thus entirely overcome the enemies of our king and
kingdom, the army of England marched by one route to the
Scottish sea,1 and returned by another, in order to destroy
all that the Scots had spared before. But on the approach of
winter the king dismissed the nobles of England to their own
estates, and undertook the guard of the March himself with
a small force for a time. But before Christmas he returned to
the south, having disbanded the aforesaid guards upon the
March.

VERSES.

Berwick, Dunbar, and Falkirk too
Show all that traitor Scots can do.
England exult ! thy Prince is peerless,
Where thee he leadeth, follow fearless.2

PRAISE OF THE KING OF ENGLAND.

The noble race of Englishmen most worthy is of praise,
By whom the Scottish people have been conquered in all ways.

England exult !

The Frenchmen break their treaties as soon as they are made,
Whereby the hope of Scotsmen has been cheated and betrayed.

England exult !

O disconcerted people ! hide yourselves and close your gates,
Lest Edward should espy you and wreak vengeance on your pates.

England exult !

Henceforth the place for vanquished Scots is nearest to the tail
In clash of arms. O England victorious, all hail !

England exult ! 3

1 Firth of Forth.

VERSUS.

Berwlke et Dunbar, nee non Varlata Capella,
Monstrant quid valeant Scottorum perfida bella,
Princeps absque pare cum sit tutu, Anglla, gaude ;
Ardua temptare sub eo securius aude,

CoMMENDATIO REGIS ANGLIA.

Nobifis Anglorum gens est dlgnlsslma laude,
Per quam Scottorum flebs vincitur — Anglla gaude !
Fcedera Francorum sunt frlvola, pl<enaque fraude,
Per quam Scottorum spesfallitur — Anglla gaude !
Gens confusa pete latebras ac ostia c laude,
Edtoardus ne te vldeat rex — Anglla gaude !
In belfis motis pars contigit ultima caudee
Devictis Scottis — super atrix Anglla gaude !

Chronicle of Lanercost 161

OF THE IMPIETY OF THE SCOTS.

O Scottish race ! God's holy shrines have been defiled by thee,

His sacred temples thou hast burnt, O crying shame to see !

Think not that thou for these misdeeds shalt punishment avoid,

For Hexham's famous sanctuary polluted and destroyed.

The pillaged house of Lanercost lies ruined and defaced ;

The doers of such sacrilege must cruel vengeance taste.

Let irons, fire, and famine now scourge the wicked race,

With whom henceforth nor fame nor faith nor treaty can have place.

The Scottish nation, basely led, hath fallen in the dust ;

In those who forfeit every pledge let no man put his trust.1

OF WILLIAM WALLACE.

Welsh William being made a noble,2
Straightway the Scots became ignoble.
Treason and slaughter, arson and raid,
By suffering and misery must be repaid.8

About the feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Mary the King
of England married the Lady Margaret, sister of the
King of France, whereby the [two] kings became A'D' 1299"
friends.4

In the same year died Oliver, Bishop of Lincoln, and Henry
of Newark, Archbishop of York. Master John of Alderby
succeeded Oliver, and Henry of Corbridge, Doctor in Theology
[succeeded Henry in the see of York].

DE IMPIKTATE SCOTTORUM.

Per te foe data loca sancta Deoque dicata ;
Templaque sacrata, sunt, profi dolor ! igne cremata.
Ene nequiverunt destructio damnaque multa
Eccleslee Celebris Haugustaldensis inulta.
Desolata domus de Lanercost mala plura
Passa fuit,fiet de tallbus ultio dura,
Ferrum, flamma, fames venient tibi, Scotia, digne,
In qua fama, fides, fcedus periere maligne.
Sub duce degenero gens Scotica degeneravit,
Qu& famam temere,faedus, qu<z fidem violavit.

2 Wallace is usually honoured by the knightly prefix 'Sir'; but there is
no record of his receiving knighthood.

DE WILLELMO WALEYS.

Postquam Willelmus Wallensis nobilitavit,
Nobilitas prorsus Scottorum degeneravit.
Proditlo, cades, incendia, frausque raping
Finiri nequeunt infelici sine fine.

4 8th September.

1 62 Sir Herbert Maxwell, Bart.

About the same time Pope Boniface wrote to the King of
England demanding that he should hand over to his custody
John de Balliol, whom he was keeping under restraint, and the
King complied with the Pope's demand in obedience to the
Roman Curia.1

In the same year the Pope issued the statute beginning Super
cathedram, et c<etera, to promote concord between the prelates
of the Church and the Orders of Preaching and Minorite
Friars.

The King prepared an army for an expedition into Scotland,

and during that march the Queen was delivered of her first-born

son Thomas, in the northern parts about Brotherton,

°°' from which town the son there born derived his sobriquet.

Howbeit the King did nothing remarkable this time against the

Scots whose land he entered, because they always fled before him,

skulking in moors and woods ; wherefore his army was taken

back to England.

In the same year William of Gainsborough, an Englishman,
was summoned to the Curia, as reader in theology at the palace
before the Cardinals ; upon whom, after the lapse of two years, the
Pope bestowed the bishopric of Worcester.

In the same [year] about the feast of S. John the Baptist,2 my
lord Edward King of England came to Carlisle with the nobles
and great men of England. With him came Sir Hugh de Vere,
and he stayed a while at Lanercost, and thence the King marched
through the district of Galloway as far as the Water of Cree.
Also he took the castle of Caerlaverock, which he gave to Sir
Robert de Clifferd, and he caused many of those found within the
castle to be hanged.

This, the sixth year of Pope Boniface, was the year of Jubilee.

In Rome each hundredth year is kept as jubilee ;

Indulgences are granted and penitents go free.

This Boniface approved of and confirmed by his decree.3

In the same year as above a formal embassy arrived at the
Roman Curia from the King of England : to wit — the Earls of

1 John de Balliol was committed to the custody of Sir Robert de Burghesh,
constable of Dover Castle, who took him to Whitsand and delivered him to the
Papal nuncio. (Feedera.)

2 2 4th June.

dnnus centenui Romee semper jubil&us ;
Crimina laxantur, cui pcenitet is fa donantur ;
Hoc declaravit Bonifacitu et rtboravit.

Chronicle of Lanercost 163

Seland, Lincoln, and Bar,1 the Bishop of Winchester, Sir Hugh le
Spenser, Galfrid de Genevilla and Otto de Grandison, knights ;
and the Archdeacon of Richmond and John of Berwick, clerics.2
The ambassadors of France were as follows — the Archbishop of
Narbonne, the Bishop of Auxerre, the Counts of Saint-Paul and
Boulogne, Pierre de Flota, and others.

In the same year was born Thomas of Brotherton, son of
King Edward.

[Here follows in the Chronicle the famous letter of Pope
Boniface VIII. to Edward I., in which he claims that * the
Kingdom of Scotland hath from ancient time belonged by un-
doubted right ' to the Church of Rome, commands King
Edward to desist from any attempt to infringe upon its indepen-
dence, to release the Bishops of Glasgow and Sodor, and other
clerics whom he had imprisoned, and to submit within six months
to the Papal judgment all documents and other evidence which
he may be able to produce in support of any claim he may
have upon the kingdom of Scotland or part thereof.

The spirited reply from King Edward's Parliament of Lincoln,
1 2th February, 1300-1, indignantly rejecting the Pope's claim to
interfere in the temporal affairs of the kingdom, is also transcribed
at length in the Chronicle ; but, as it is given in Fcedera and
elsewhere, it is not necessary to repeat it here.]

At the beginning of summer the king assembled an army
against the Scots and placed one part of the force under command
of my lord Edward, his son by his first wife and Prince
of Wales, and under command of divers nobles of A'D' I301'
England who were in his company, and these entered Scotland on
the west ; but [the king] kept the other part with himself and
entered by Berwick. The Scots, however, dared not fight with

1 Barensis : which might be from Bara, the Latinised form of Dunbar : but
there is no record of Sir Patrick 'with the blak berd,' 8th Earl of Dunbar, being
employed on this mission, although he was certainly in King Edward's service at
this time.

2 This embassy was sent to counter the Scottish mission earlier in the year.
The chronicler's list of names does not exactly correspond with that set
forth in King Edward's letter to Pope Boniface (Rymer's Fcedera), which
included John, Bishop of Winchester ; Friar William of Gainsborough; Gerard,
Archdeacon of Richmond ; John of Berwick, Canon of York ; Amadis, Earl of
Savoy (Sabaudiae) ; Henry de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln ; Sir Galfrid de Genevill,
Sir Galfrid Russell, Sir Otto de Grandison, Sir Hugh le Despenser, Sir Amaneus,
lord of le Breto ; Master Reymund, vasatensem of Arnald de Rama ; and Peter,
Canon of Almeric of S. Severin's of Bordeaux.

164 Sir Herbert Maxwell, Bart.

either army, but fled as they had done the previous year.
Howbeit they took some fine spoil from the English and did
much other mischief; wherefore the king, considering that
whatever he gained in Scotland during the summer he would lose
in winter, decided to spend the whole winter at Linlithgow
and elsewhere in Scotland, and did so. The Scots were brought
far nearer subjection by that occupation than they had been
before.

In the same year the Queen bore another son named Edmund,
and after her purification joined the king in Scotland.

Also in these times fresh dispute took place between the Kings
of France and England about the land of Gascony, but at last
they came to an agreement after the truce had been renewed
several times.

In the same year —

BISHOP BONIFACE, servant of the servants of God, to his venerable brother
in Christ the Archbishop of Canterbury, greeting and apostolic benediction.
Not without cause do we hold it to be very grave and most contrary to
our wishes that prelates of the Church, who are under obligation through
the nature of the pastoral office to set an example to others of praiseworthy
conduct, presume with damnable audacity to proceed by uneven ways
to nefarious actions, and, giving themselves the rein, do not shrink from
perpetrating deeds whereby the Divine Majesty is offended, his glory
disparaged, their own salvation endangered, and the minds of the faithful
are unsettled by a grave scandal.

Wherefore we are actuated by becoming motives and exhort [thee]
to consider advisedly how we may apply the speedy remedy of this
warning, for the correction or punishment of the excesses of the prelates
themselves, as justice requires.

For indeed we have learnt by trustworthy report, which has now many
times been brought to our hearing, that Walter de Langton, Bishop of
Coventry and Lichfield, forgetful of pastoral integrity, unmindful of his
own salvation, careless of good fame, and, as it were, the destroyer of
his own honour, has not feared to perpetrate, nor does he cease from
committing, deeds as wicked as they are atrocious, and so nefarious that
they must either produce disgust with horror in those who hear about
them or else cause a loathing of such abomination; wherefore we do
not consider it meet either to describe them now in these letters or to
relate them by word of mouth. Wherefore, being unwilling, as indeed we
ought to be, to wink at such things as offend God and scandalise men
if they receive encouragement from the truth, we must proceed by careful
consideration to inflict deserved punishment upon these persons, lest they
gain strength through lapse of time. In accordance, therefore, with the
law as we perceive it and have decided to enforce, we have issued these
apostolic scripts, strictly enjoining upon thy fraternity that, in the virtue of

Chronicle of Lanercost 165

obedience, thou shalt without delay cause the said bishop to be summoned
under our authority, either by thyself, or by another, or by others, to appear
in person before us, within the space of three months, counting from the day
of this citation, on pain of deprivation of the pontifical office (which we will
that he shall incur ipso facto should he prove disobedient in this matter), to
submit humbly and effectually to our decrees and precepts and those
of the apostolic see upon all and several matters set forth, and upon any
others which may happen to be brought forward or objected against him.

Take thou care in thy letters, describing the course of events, to inform
us fully and faithfully of the day on which thou receives! these presents,
the citation and its form, and whatsoever thou doest in this matter.

Given at the Lateran, on the 8th of the Ides of February,1 in the sixth
year of our pontificate.

The French, desiring unjustly to subdue the Flemings to
themselves, invaded that country with an army on several
occasions ; but the Flemings, boldly encountering on
foot the mounted force, inflicted upon them much
slaughter and won some marvellous victories, killing notables and
nobles of France, to wit, the Counts of Artois, of Eu, of Boulogne,
of Albemarle ; and lords, to wit, Jacques de Saint-Paul, Godefroie
de Brabayne and his son, Jean de Henaud, lord of Teyns, Pierre
de Flota and Jean de Bristiach, barons ; and many other knights,
[with] upwards of 20,000 men, of whom 3,500 were men-at-
arms.2

About the Ascension of our Lord 3 the King of England came
with an army against the Scots ; but they dreaded lest he should
remain with them not only in summer but in winter ;
wherefore all the nobles of Scotland were compelled to
come before him, and he received them to his peace. He remained
in the country until the Nativity of the Glorious Virgin.4

In the same year Pope Boniface declared the King of the
Teutons 5 to be Emperor ; and this he did, as was said, for the

1 6th February, 1300-01.

2 This was the battle of Courtray, nth July, 1302, memorable as the first
occasion when infantry, fighting in the solid formation afterwards adopted by the
Scots, successfully withstood the onslaught of armoured cavalry. It caused as much
sensation in military circles of the fourteenth century as did the introduction of
breech-loading rifles by the Prussians in the war with Austria in 1866.

8 1 6th May. 48th September.

5 Albert I., Duke of Austria. 'The Holy Roman Church and the Holy
Roman Emperor are one and the same thing in two different aspects. ... As divine
and eternal, the head of Catholicism is the Pope, to whom souls have been
entrusted ; as human and temporal, the Emperor, commissioned to rule men's
bodies and acts ' (Bryce's Holy Roman Empire). The reference in the text is to a

1 66 Sir Herbert Maxwell, Bart.

humiliation of the King of France and the French. But the
King of France and the men of his realm, clerics as well as laity,
wrote many lengthy complaints against the Pope, and pledged
themselves to prove all that they wrote.

But in the meantime the Pope, whom all the world feared as a
lion because of his wisdom and courage, was captured and
imprisoned by the Colonnas, because he had expelled cardinals who
were of their kin from the College of Cardinals and made them
incapable of holding any degree or dignity in the Church. In the
following October1 he died, whether by a natural death or, as is
more probable, through grief. Within a few days Cardinal
Nicholas, of the Order of Preachers, was appointed in his place,
and was named Benedict the Eleventh ; and because it appeared
to him that the aforesaid statute of Boniface had been issued to
the detriment of the aforesaid two Orders, and was too much in
favour of prelates, he quashed it and issued a new one, which
begins thus — Inter cunctas, etc. And he died in the same
year on the festival of S. Thomas the Martyr,2 and was succeeded
(though not immediately after his death) by the Archbishop of
Bordeaux, who was named Clement the Fifth, from whose time
the Roman Curia has been removed to Avignon.

On the festival of S. Hieronymus 3 Thomas of Corbridge died,

and William of Greenfield succeeded him in the arch-

A.D. 1304. bishopj.^ Shortly before this, to wit, about the

Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary,4 the King returned from

Scotland to England, having received the Scots to his peace.

William Wallace was captured by a certain Scot, to wit,
Sir John de Menteith, and was taken to London to the King, and
it was adjudged that he should be drawn and hanged,
beheaded, disembowelled, and dismembered, and that
his entrails should be burnt ; which was done. And his head was
exposed upon London Bridge, his right arm on the bridge of

speech made by Pope Boniface on 3Oth April, 1303, in which he reminded the
King of France that, like all other princes, he must consider himself subject to the
Roman Emperor. ' Let not the pride of the French rebel which declares that it
acknowledgeth no superior. They lie : for by law they are, and ought to be,
subject to the King of the Romans and the Emperor.' Boniface had previously
declined to recognise Albert I. as Emperor because he had but one eye and was
the reverse of good-looking (fit homo monoculus etvultu sordido, nonpotest esse imperator) :
and when Albert's envoys waited upon him in 1 299, Boniface exclaimed ' Am I
not Pontiff? Is not this the chair of Peter ? Am I not able to guard the rights
of the empire ? I am Caesar — I am Emperor ! '

1 1303. 2 ?th July. 8 3oth September. 4 8th September.

Chronicle of Lanercost 167

Newcastle-upon-Tyne, his left arm at Berwick, his right foot at
Perth, and his left foot at Aberdeen.

The vilest doom is fittest for thy crimes,
Justice demands that thou shouldst die three times.
Thou pillager of many a sacred shrine,
Butcher of thousands, threefold death be thine !
So shall the English from thee gain relief,
Scotland ! be wise, and choose a nobler chief.1

In the same year, on the fourth of the Ides of February, to wit,
on the festival of S. Scholastica virgin,2 Sir Robert Bruce, Earl of
Carrick, sent seditiously and treacherously for Sir John Comyn,
requiring him to come and confer with him at the house of
the Minorite Friars in Dumfries ; and, when he came, did slay
him and his uncle Sir Robert Comyn in the church of the Friars,
and afterwards took [some] castles of Scotland and their wardens,
and on the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin next following3 was
made King of Scotland at Scone, and many of the nobles and
commonalty of that land adhered to him.

When the King of England heard of this, he sent horse
and foot to Carlisle and Berwick to protect the Border. But
because the men of Galloway refused to join the
aforesaid Robert in his rebellion, their lands were burnt A'D' I
by him, and, pursuing one of the chiefs of Galloway, he besieged
him in a certain lake, but some of the Carlisle garrison caused him
to raise the siege, and he retreated, after burning the engines and
ships that he had made for the siege.4

But those who were in garrison at Berwick, to wit, Sir Robert
Fitzroger, an Englishman who was warden of the town, and Sir
John Mowbray, Sir Ingelram de Umfraville, and Sir Alexander de
Abernethy, Scotsmen, with their following, over all of whom Sir
Aymer de Valence was in command — all these, I say, entered
Scotland and received to the King of England's peace some of
those who at first had been intimidated into rebellion with Sir

Sunt tua demerita misero dignissima Jine,

Esque pati dignus necis infortunia fringe ;

Qui vastare soles sacras hostiliter eedes,

Et nimis atroces hominum committere c<edes,

Turpiter occisus, Anglos non amodo lades ;

Si sapis ergo duci tali #, Scotia, ne des.
2 loth February, 1305-6.

8 25th March, 1305-6. The real date of the coronation was the 2jth.
4 This does not coincide with anything that is known of Bruce'i movements
after his coronation.

1 68 Sir Herbert Maxwell, Bart.

Robert. Him they pursued beyond the Scottish sea,1 and there
engaged him in battle near the town of St. John (which is called by
another name Pert), killed many of his people, and in the end put
him to flight.2

Meanwhile the King of England, having assembled an army,
sent my lord Edward, his son aforesaid (whom he had knighted in
London together with three hundred others), and the Earl of
Lincoln, by whose advice the said lord Edward was to act, in pursuit
of the said Robert de Brus,who had caused himself to be called King.
When they entered Scotland they received many people to peace
on condition that they should in all circumstances observe the law ;
then marching forward to the furthest bounds of Scotland, where
the said Robert might be found, they found him not, but
they took all the castles with a strong hand. But they hanged
those who had part in the aforesaid conspiracy, design and
assistance in making him king, most of whom they caused first to
be drawn at the heels of horses and afterwards hanged them ; among
whom were the Englishman Christopher de Seton, who had
married the sister of the oft-mentioned Robert, and John and
Humphrey, brothers of the said Christopher, and several others
with them. Among those who were hanged were not only simple
country folk and laymen, but also knights and clerics and pre-
bendaries, albeit these protested that, as members of the Church,
justice should be done to them accordingly.3 Then Sir Simon
Fraser, a Scot, having been taken to London, was first drawn, then
hanged, thirdly beheaded, and his head set up on London Bridge
beside that of William Wallace. They also took to England and
imprisoned the Bishop of S. Andrews, whom the King of England
had appointed Guardian of Scotland, and who had entered into
a bond of friendship with the said Robert, as was proved by letters
of his which were found ; also the Bishop of Glasgow, who had
been principal adviser in that affair, and the Abbot of Scone, who
assisted the aforesaid Robert when he was received into royal
honour. Howbeit in the meantime Robert called de Brus was
lurking in the remote isles of Scotland.4

1 I.e. the firths of Forth and Clyde. 2 26th June, 1 306.

8 Benefit of clergy, i.e. to be dealt with by ecclesiastical authority.

4 Fabyan and some other English writers state that Bruce spent this winter in
Norway. It is usually believed that he spent it in the island of Rachrin, off
the coast of Antrim. This belonged to Bysset of the Glens, to whom orders were
sent from King Edward in January, 1 306-7, to join Sir John de Menteith and
Sir Simon de Montacute with his ships ' to put down Robert de Brus and destroy
his retreat in the Isles between Scotland and Ireland.' Bain's Calendar, iii. 502.

Chronicle of Lanercost 169

Throughout all these doings the King of England was not in
Scotland, but his son, with the aforesaid army. But the King was
slowly approaching the Scottish border with the Queen, by many
easy stages and borne in a litter on the backs of horses on account
of his age and infirmity ; and on the feast of S. Michael l he
arrived at the Priory of Lanercost, which is eight miles from
Carlisle, and there he remained until near Easter.2 Meantime his
kinsman, the Earl of Athol, who had encouraged the party of the
said Robert to make him king, had been captured, and by command
of the King was taken to London, where he was drawn, hanged,
and beheaded, and his head was set upon London Bridge above
the heads of William Wallace and Simon Fraser, because he was
akin to the King.

After this, on the vigil of S. Scholastica virgin,3 two brothers of
Robert de Brus, Thomas and Alexander, Dean of Glasgow, and
Sir Reginald de Crawford, desiring to avenge themselves upon the
people of Galloway, invaded their country with eighteen ships and
galleys, having with them a certain kinglet of Ireland, and the
Lord of Cantyre and other large following. Against them came
Dougal Macdoual (that is the son of Doual), a chief among the
Gallovidians, with his countrymen, defeated them and captured all
but a few who escaped in two galleys. He ordered the Irish
kinglet and the Lord of Cantyre to be beheaded and their heads to
be carried to the King of England at Lanercost.4

Thomas de Brus and his brother Alexander and Sir Reginald de
Crawford, who had been severely wounded in their capture by
lances and arrows, he likewise took alive to the King, who
pronounced sentence upon them, and caused Thomas to be drawn
at the tails of horses in Carlisle on the Friday after the first Sunday
in Lent,5 and then to be hanged and afterwards beheaded. Also
he commanded the other two to be hanged on the same day and
afterwards beheaded ; whose heads, with the heads of the four
others aforesaid, were set upon the three gates of Carlisle, and the
head of Thomas de Brus upon the keep of Carlisle. Nigel, the
third brother of Robert, had been hanged already at Newcastle.

About the same time a certain cardinal named Peter came
to England, sent a latere from my lord the Pope to establish peace

1 29th September.

2 26th March, 1 307. His writs are dated from Lanercost till 4th March, 1306-7.

3 loth February, 1306-7.

4 Bain's Cal. Doc. Scot., ii., 1905. 5 1 7th February, 1306-7.

170 Sir Herbert Maxwell, Bart.

between the King of France and the King of England ; and it
so happened that both my lord the King and my lord the said
cardinal entered Carlisle on Passion Sunday.1 Then in the
cathedral church on the Wednesday following my lord cardinal
explained the object of his legation before a very great number of
people and clergy, and showed them the excellent manner in which
my lord the Pope and my lord the King of France had agreed,
subject to the consent of the King of England — to wit, that my
lord Edward, son and heir of the King of England, should marry
Isabella, daughter of the King of France. When this had been
said, uprose William of Gainsborough, Bishop of Worcester, and
on the part of the King briefly informed my lord cardinal and all
who had come thither of the manner of Sir John Comyn's
assassination, praying that he would deign to grant some
indulgence for his soul, and that he would pronounce sentence
of excommunication upon the murderers ; whereupon the legate
liberally granted one year [of indulgence] for those who should
pray for the said soul so long as he [the cardinal] should remain in
England, and for one hundred days afterwards. Then straightway,
having doffed his ordinary raiment and donned his pontificals, he
denounced the murderers of the said Sir John as excommunicate,
anathematised, and sacrilegious, together with all their abettors,
and any who offered them counsel or favour ; and expelled them
from Holy Mother Church until they should make full atone-
ment ; and thus those who were denounced were excommunicate
for a long time throughout all England, especially in the northern
parts and in the neighbourhood where the murder was committed.
On the following Friday, in the same place, peace was pro-
claimed between the said kings by the Archbishop of York,
and [it was announced] that the King of England's son was
to marry the King of France's daughter, accordingly as had been
previously decreed by my lord Pope Boniface.

In the same year, about the feast of S. Matthew the Apostle,2
the most noble King Edward being laid up at Newbrough near
Hexham, his consort the illustrious Margaret Queen of England,
came to the house of Lanercost with her honourable household.
And my lord the King came thither on the vigil of S. Michael3
next following, and remained there nearly half a year. And on
the first day of March 4 they left the said monastery for Carlisle, and
there he held a parliament with all the great men of the realm.

1 1 9th March, 1306-7. 22ist September.

3 28th September. 4 i 306-7.

Chronicle of Lanercost 171

In the same year Friar N. de Mor was sent by the Queen to
Oseney.

On Easter Day : the aforesaid Dungal 2 was knighted by the
King's hand ; and in the same week Sir John Wallace was captured
and taken to the King at Carlisle, who sent him to
London, that he should there undergo the same doom as A'D' !
his brother William had suffered. Howbeit, notwithstanding the
terrible vengeance inflicted upon the Scots who adhered to the
party of the aforesaid Robert de Brus, the number of those willing
to establish him in the realm increased from day to day.3
Wherefore the King of England caused all the chief men of
England who owed him service to attend at Carlisle with the
Welsh infantry within fifteen days after the nativity of S. John the
Baptist.4 But alas ! on the feast of the translation of S. Thomas,
Archbishop of Canterbury and Martyr,5 in the year of our Lord
aforesaid, this illustrious and excellent King, my lord Edward,
son of King Henry, died at Burgh-upon-Sands, which is distant
about three miles to the north from Carlisle, in the thirty-sixth6
year of his reign and the sixty-seventh of his age. Throughout
his time he had been fearless and warlike, in all things strenuous
and illustrious ; he left not his like among Christian princes for
sagacity and courage. He is reported to have said to the Lord
before his death: — Have mercy upon me, Almighty God ! Ita
ueraciter sicut nunquam aliquem [ ] 7 nisi tantum #, Dominum
Deum meum.

Messengers were sent in haste to my lord Edward Prince of
Wales, his son and heir, who arrived at Carlisle on the eleventh
day, to wit, on the festival of S. Symphorosa,8 and on the next day
he went to Burgh to mourn for his father, with the nobles of the
land and prelates of the Church, who were assembled there in
great number.

1 2 6th March.

2 Dungal or Doual, one of the Pictish chiefs of Galloway, head of a powerful
clan of the same blood as the M'Doualls of Lorn. The lands of Logan in
Wigtownshire are still held by his descendants.

3 In this sentence is well expressed the national character of the Scots — they are
willing to be lead but will not be driven.

4 8th July. 5 7th July. 6 Really the thirty-fifth.

7 The verb here is wanting in the original, which leaves the sense doubtful.

8 1 8th July.

(To be continued.'}

Charter of the Abbot and Convent of
Cupar, 1 2 20

WHILE my friend, Mr. William Brown, secretary of the
Surtees Society, was working on the Citeaux deeds in
the archives of the Cote d'Or preserved at Dijon, he copied a
charter of the abbot and convent of Cupar, which he most kindly
sent to me with the intimation that, if I found it of value as a
Scottish document, I should submit it to the editor of the Scottish
Historical Review. Though the seal is lost, the skin has every
appearance of being the original charter. But the whole structure
of the composition and some verbal peculiarities of language
seem to indicate that it is an abridged transcript of early date.
There can be no doubt, however, that the writing as we now
have it contains a faithful report of a genuine transaction. As
the charter without doubt possesses several features of interest,
and as it appears, so far as I can learn, to be new to Scottish
history, it is here printed.

Here we have Alexander, abbot of Cupar, and his convent
entering into an obligation in January, 1219-1220, with the mother
house of Citeaux for the yearly payment at Troyes of thirty
marks, which King Alexander II., for the good of his soul, had
given to the monks of Citeaux as a procuration for the abbots in
attendance there on the fourth day of the General Chapter of the
Order. In other words, the monks of Cupar, by their own desire,
undertook to act as the King's agents for the yearly render of
the benefaction, either by reason of a special grant for that purpose
or in consideration of manifold gifts already bestowed by that
King on their house.

As the floruit of Abbot Alexander is fairly well authenticated,
and as several charters or abstracts of charters of King Alexander II.
to that abbey are extant,1 the historical relation of our text to
these matters may be passed over. The interest of the deed, as

1 Register of Cupar Abbey (Grampian Club), i. 8-n, 325-9, ii. 282.

Charter of Abbot and Convent of Cupar 173

TEXT.

Ego, frater Alexander, dictus
abbas de Cupro eiusdemque loci
conuentus, omnibus presentes lit-
teras inspecturis, notum facimus
quod tenemur Domui Cistercii in
triginta marcis sterlingorum lega-
lium singulis annis in posterum
in nundinis Tresensibus in festo
apostolorum Petri et Pauli persol-
uendis, quas Uir Nobilis Alexander,
rex Scocie, pro remedio anime sue
et antecessorum et successorum
suorum, in perpetuam elemosinam
dicte Domui contulit pro procu-
randis abbatibus apud Cistercium
quarto die Capituli generalis, de
quibus triginta marcis prefatus Rex
nobis ad uoluntatem nostram ple-
narie satisfecit. Quod ut ratum et
firmum permaneat in posterum
presentem cartam sigilli nostri
munimine roborauimus. Actum
anno gracie M°cc° nonodecimo,
mense Januario.

TRANSLATION.

I, brother Alexander, called
abbot of Cupre, and the convent
of the same place, make known to
all who shall see the present letter,
that we are bound to the House of
Citeaux in thirty marks of lawful
money, to be paid yearly here-
after in the fair of Troyes on
the feast of the Apostles Peter
and Paul, which the illustrious
Alexander, King of Scotland, for
the relief of his soul and of the
souls of his ancestors and successors,
bestowed on the said House in
perpetual alms, towards the cost of
maintaining the abbots at Citeaux
on the fourth day of the General
Chapter : in respect of which thirty
marks the said King, at our desire,
has given us full compensation.
That this (obligation) may continue
valid and unalterable hereafter we
have confirmed the present writing
with the security of our seal. Done
in the month of January in the
year of grace 1219.

it seems to me, lies in the King's grant to Citeaux. Is this grant
unique in Scottish record ? Perhaps some student of Scottish
evidences will give a definite answer.

My reason for asking the question arises from a study of the
Cistercian statutes of 1256. In the twenty-second chapter of
the fifth ' distinction ' it was laid down that on the fifth day of
the General Chapter, before the departure of the abbots, com-
memoration should be made of the Pope and Emperor and the
King of France in whose kingdom the abbey of Citeaux was
founded ; also of the King of the English, who had bestowed a
yearly alms on the chapter ; also of the King of Aragon and
the Duke of Burgundy.1 It would appear that the King of
Scots was shut out at the date of the statute from the benefit of
their prayers. Did the obligation of the monks of Cupar cease
at King Alexander's death ? If so, it is quite evident that
Alexander III. did not renew the grant.

1 Cistercian Statutes (ed. J. T. Fowler), p. 52.

174 Rev. James Wilson

Grants for the procuration of the abbots attending the General
Chapter at Citeaux were by no means rare. Mr. Brown has met
with several of this sort at Dijon made by English and Irish
magnates, to some of which the seals are still appendent. King
Richard of England, by charter dated 22nd September, 1189,
gave the church of Scarborough to God, and the church of the
Blessed Mary of Citeaux ' ad procurandos omnes abbates apud
Cistercium per tres dies capituli generalis,' and on a repetition of
the grant, dated nth May, 1198, the object is stated to be * de
qua elemosina uolumus abbates procurari apud Cistercium per
tres dies capituli generalis.' As the grant had afterwards passed
through all the processes of ecclesiastical confirmation, the appro-
priation of this church to the House of Citeaux became
permanent.1

Grants of alms in money were by their very nature more
precarious than grants of property, spiritual or temporal. The
obligation depended on the continued goodwill of the donor and
his descendants : ability to pay was a requisite of the first
importance. The benefaction of the King of Scotland may be
illustrated by similar grants of Irish rulers. In many respects
the Irish grants resemble the mode adopted by Alexander II.
The King of Connaught employed the abbot of Mellisfont as his
agent for the payment of five marks, ' in subsidium et iuuamen
procuracionis quarte diei abbatum ad generale capitulum Cistercii
quolibet anno conueniencium,' which the abbot would receive
from him on 23rd June or ist May, that the money might be
transmitted or brought over and delivered yearly to the House of
Citeaux in the time of the General Chapter. The king obliged
himself and his heirs, and those who should reign after him in
Connaught, to continue the benefaction. The charter of Donagh
Cairbreach, King of Thomond, is drawn up in similar form,
granting two marks yearly for the same purpose, but nominating
the abbot of Monasternenagh (de Magio} in the county of
Limerick as his almoner, and appointing ist May as the day on
which the Irish abbot should receive the money. Both of the
Irish charters may be dated within a few years after that of Cupar.

Perhaps we have here an explanation of the omission of the
Scottish king's name from the Capitular commemoration. The
names of the Irish kings were also omitted, and the nature of
the grants was precisely similar. By King Richard's grant a
permanent endowment was made to the abbey, but the yearly
1 Cat. of Papal Letters, i. 120, 476 ; ii. 177, 190.

Charter of Abbot and Convent of Cupar 175

payment of a small alms appears to have been regarded only as
an evidence of allegiance and esteem. At all events, the political
condition of Ireland at this period was not favourable to the con-
tinuance of eleemosynary grants to a distant religious house. The
same may be said of the contests in Scotland during the nonage
of Alexander III. at the time when the Cistercian statutes were
compiled.

There was a special statute which regulated the distribution of
the procurations sent to the General Chapter, three portions
of which were reserved pro defunctis and allotted to the poor.
The Cistercians are said to have prided themselves on their
solicitude for the departed. Certain formalities were observed
at the reception of this yearly tribute, two abbots being appointed
for that purpose.

It will be observed that the King of Scotland's benefaction was
to be used on the fourth day of the Chapter, that is apparently at
the conclusion of the session, for on the fifth day the abbots in
attendance were to take their departure.

A puzzling feature of the transaction is the place selected for
the payment of the alms. Troyes is a long way from Citeaux,
whereas Dijon, the nearest town of importance, was a recognised
place of rendezvous for abbots and their trains on the way to and
from the Chapter. The custom of holding fish-feasts at Dijon
on these occasions had to be prohibited by statute. No abbot,
monk, or lay brother could eat fish at Dijon during their stay
there : they were also to behave themselves with becoming
gravity, and not walk through the streets without urgent cause.
Perhaps the Scottish abbots took another route and reached
Citeaux by way of Troyes.

There are a few points in this deed of which I can offer no
satisfactory explanation. It is well known that remoteness from
Citeaux had much to do with the attendance of abbots at the
yearly Chapter. According to the statutes1 of 1256 the abbots
of Scotland, like those of Ireland and Sicily, were obliged to
attend only every fourth year; the abbots of countries more
distant at longer intervals. But the obligation of the abbot of
Cupar on behalf of the King of Scots was for a yearly payment.
Then again, the Chapter assembled on I3th September, whereas
the Scottish render was set down for 29th June, the feast of the
Apostles Peter and Paul. The nearest safe-conduct that can be
found to the date of the charter for the men of an abbot of Cupar

1 Op. clt. p. 47.

176 Rev. James Wilson

passing through England with money beyond the seas is dated yth
August, 1224, granted at the request of the King of Scots.1 On
the same day a similar protection was granted to the men of the
abbot of Melrose.

The best solution of the difficulties connected with this charter
that occurs to me is that there was frequent communication about
the period in question between Scotland and Flanders for
commercial purposes. For example, it is certain that in 1225
the abbots of Cupar and Melrose had ships, freighted with wool
and other merchandise, trading with Flanders.2 No doubt the
Cupar merchants penetrated so far south as Troyes, and as wool
was the chief commodity of trade, the date selected for the yearly
payment, 29th June, would synchronise well with the time for
disposal of that article. The transport of money backwards and
forwards was not a thing to be encouraged. In any case, in view
of the commercial intercourse between Scotland and Flanders, the
natural route for the Scottish abbots, when going to the General
Chapter, would be through Troyes, and not by way of Dijon like
most of the other prelates. There can be little doubt, however,
that some of the abbots of Cupar in the fourteenth century
journeyed to Citeaux by way of Dover,3 a route by which they
must have inevitably passed through Dijon, but this perhaps may
be accounted for by the English predominance in Scotland at
that period.

Sir Archibald Lawrie, who has seen a proof of this paper, has
been good enough to add the following note.

JAMES WILSON.

The Scottish Cistercian monasteries in 1218-1219 claimed the assistance
and protection of the parent house at Citeaux, because in 1218 the Papal
Legate sent two English ecclesiastics to Scotland, with powers to release
the parish priests and the people from the ban of the General Interdict, but
excepted from this release bishops and prelates, including the abbots and
abbey churches of the Cistercian order, although these abbeys held many
Papal Bulls permitting Mass to be said privately during an Interdict. The
result of the Legate's order was that the Cistercians were altogether
excommunicated.

The Abbots of Melrose, Newbattle, Cupar, and Kinross, and the Prior

of St. Serf's were summoned to Rome in 1218 (Chron. of Metros, p. 1 33)

because they disregarded the orders of the Legate. The Abbot of Citeaux

successfully exerted himself on their behalf, and to the confusion of the

Legate, Abbot Conrad of Citeaux was in 1218 (or 1219 ?) created Cardinal

1 Patent R. 8 Hen. iii. m. 5. * Ibid. 9 Hen. iii. m. 5.

8 Close R. 31 Edw. i. m. 6.

Charter of Abbot and Convent of Cupar 177

Bishop of Porto, and Gaucherus, Abbot of Longo Ponte, succeeded him
at Citeaux.

It is therefore not surprising to find a charter in France which shews
that Alexander II., King of Scotland, helped his Scottish monasteries by-
agreeing to provide thirty marks of silver a year for the expenses of the
General Council of the Cistercians.

The King's charter has not been preserved, probably it stated from what
source the money was to come, but the king may (and not unreasonably)
have said to the Abbot of Cupar, you must take the trouble of seeing that
the money is sent and that it reaches the proper hands, and, so to supple-
ment the royal charter, the Abbot of Cupar, for the moment representing
the Cistercian houses in Scotland, granted a letter obligatory of payment
to the house of Citeaux of the amount of the King's grant.

The time and place of payment, probably unfixed in the King's charter,
were in this obligation stated to be the annual Fair of Troyes, held on the
festival of the Apostles Peter and Paul, to whom the church of Troyes was
dedicated.

Doubtless, as Dr. Wilson suggests, Troyes was a convenient place of
payment, having regard to Scottish trade and money dealings.

I venture to doubt whether the document discovered at Dijon, and
transcribed by Mr. Brown, is the original granted by the Abbot of Cupar.

It seems to me to be only an abstract, defective in many ways. It
has been suggested that * dictus Abbas de Cupro ' seems to indicate that
the deed is a copy. I do not know that * dictus ' indicates that ; in the
Register of Aberdeen we find * Frater Laurentius vocatus Abbas de
Melros.' Dictus and vocatus may be terms of humility. I miss the usual
words of greeting to the faithful sons of the Church. The beginning
is abrupt and compressed, 'ejusdemque' I don't like, it is always *Et
ejusdem loci conventus.' Then to describe the abbey as l Domus
Cistercius' is wanting in respect due to the dignified parent abbey, to
which the filial houses were very closely bound. I think the original
would state that Cupar lay in Scotland, would describe it as a humble
daughter of Citeaux, would give the name of the great Abbot to whom
and to whose successors the money was to be paid. The writer (or
abstract maker) is wanting in courtesy not only to the Abbot but to the
King. Alexander and his predecessors were not 'nobiles' but 'illustres.'
The Abbot of Cupar would write of him as his Lord the King.

I do not like pro remedio instead of pro salute, and * pro procurandis
abbatibus apud Cistertium quarto die capituli generalis ' is surely wrong.
Dr. Wilson translates it, 'towards the cost of maintaining the Abbots at
Citeaux on the fourth day of the General Council' ; but is * pro procurandis
abbatibus ' tolerable ?

' Ad procurationem abbatibus faciendam ' or ' exhibendam ' is the
usual form. * Nobis ad voluntatem nostram plenarie satisfecit ' seems
disrespectful when written of a King.

The document ends abruptly without witnesses, seemingly without the
promised seal or even its tag.

A. C. LAWRIE.

M

A Roman Outpost on Tweedside

The Fort of Newstead1

r I \HE Society of Antiquaries of Scotland have crowned their
JL enterprise of the investigation of Roman sites in Scotland
by the excavation of Newstead, near the famous Abbey of
Melrose, which perhaps owed a good deal of its building stone to
the plunder of the much older remains of the Roman buildings in
its immediate neighbourhood. Commencing in 1895 with the
large fortress-camp of Birrens, in Dumfriesshire, the Society has
examined the similar camps of Lyne in Peeblesshire, Camelon in
Stirlingshire, Ardoch and Inchtuthil in Perthshire, and two
smaller stations on the Antonine Wall, and the results have been
published in successive volumes of their Proceedings. Some of
these results were of more than passing interest ; taking them as
a whole they might have been considered as affording a fairly
good general idea of the character and circumstances of the
military occupation of Scotland by the Romans. These were all
manageable enterprises, undertaken and carried through by the
Society, partly from its own resources, and partly with the help
of generous contributions from one of its own members.

But Newstead proved to be an undertaking of an altogether
different character in the extent of the work, and the difficulty of
the problems which it presented; and the Society would have
been quite unable to carry it through had it not been for the
generous response made both by the Fellows and by the outside
public to their appeal for subscriptions. The appeal has been
fully justified by the results. Newstead has far exceeded all the
other sites in the direct light it has thrown not only on the
Roman invasion and occupation of the southern part of the country,
but in the details it has afforded of the everyday life and the arts,

1 A Roman Frontier Post and its People ; the Fort of Nevosttad in the Parish of
Melrose. By James Curie, F.S.A. Scot., F.S.A. Demy 4to. Pp. xx, 432, with
plans and 97 plates and many other illustrations. Glasgow : James MacLehose &
Sons. 1911. 425. nett.

.-)*

A Roman Outpost on Tweedside 179

crafts, and commerce of the colonists there, and of the traders
who supplied their wants from abroad. In short, the combined
result is a more vivid and complete picture of the Roman life of
the first and second centuries, on the borders of a remote colony
of the Empire, than has ever before been presented to us.

For this brilliant result the public, no less than the Society, are
indebted to Mr. James Curie of Priorwood, Melrose, to whose
direction and superintendence the excavation was entrusted, and
to whose zealous and painstaking supervision the success of the
operations is mainly due. When he undertook the work he had
little idea how large an undertaking lay before him, or into how
many byeways of archaeology it was to lead ; but the more it
disclosed itself the more resolutely he stuck to it, until he had the
satisfaction of seeing it completed after five years of strenuous
work. And now he has given to the world a sumptuous book of
over 400 quarto pages, in which are recorded in the fullest detail
the facts observed throughout the operations, and the conclusions
drawn from them, with admirable illustrations and descriptions of
the vast multitude of relics that were found. He has also given
full citations of the archaeological evidence relating to the
numerous problems requiring further elucidation than was obtain-
able on the spot. For this he has visited and carefully examined
the principal Roman sites and collections in England, and on the
Continent, where so much has recently been done to throw fresh
light on the details of the Roman military occupation of the
confines of the Empire.

He has thus proved himself in all respects emphatically the
man for the occasion, and it may be confidently predicted that his
book will remain the principal authority on Roman antiquities in
Scotland for a very long time, if indeed it is ever possible that it
can be superseded.

The story of the site is traced from 1783, when a Roman altar
was casually discovered. In 1830 another altar was met with,
and in 1846 some rubbish pits were exposed during the cutting
of the railway line ; but for more than half a century afterwards
the memory of the buried altars and the tradition of the pits was
all that remained to connect it with the Romans. In 1903 Mr.
Roberts of Drygrange, a Fellow of the Society, in some drainage
operations on his property encountered the foundations of a large
building, and a proposal was made that the Society should
investigate the remains thus discovered. The site, on a rising
ground at the base of the Eildons (whose triple summit is

180 Joseph Anderson

suggestive of the Trimontium of the Antonine Itinerary),
commands the passage of the Tweed in the line of the Roman
Road over the Cheviots from Corbridge-on-Tyne, which crosses
the Oxnam at Cappuck where the remains of a Roman fort had
been partially explored by the late Marquis of Lothian in 1886.
It was therefore an important site which might reasonably be
^expected to repay excavation, although no sign was visible on
the surface of the fields which had been under cultivation from
time immemorial.

The process of unravelling the complicated problems of the
successive reconstructions and adaptations of the forts and their
defences and interior buildings during the progress of the excava-
tions is most interestingly told by Mr. Curie. The ultimate
result was an accumulation of incontestable evidence that New-
stead had been by far the most important military station of the
Roman army in Scotland, including a great camp of the usual
form, fortified by a ditch and rampart, and containing an area
of 49 acres. A little way off the north-west corner of this
camp lay the remains, wholly underground, of the smaller but
more solidly and elaborately constructed forts, superposed the one
above the other, which it is the object of the book to describe.

As finally made out, these remains consisted of an early fort on
the lower level, with an earthen rampart and two ditches, enclosing
an area of about 1 2 acres, and a later fort of larger size which had
been built partly over the site of the earlier one. From the
ingenious arrangement of the ramparts and ditches of the early
fort for the protection of its four gates — an arrangement that has
not been observed elsewhere — as well as from the evidence of the
pottery found in its ditches, it was clearly referable to the advance
of Agricola. It seems to have been abandoned after a brief
occupation, and at some considerable time afterwards and partly
on the same site there was constructed the largest known fortress-
camp in Scotland, covering with its defences an area of more than
20 acres, with an interior space exceeding 15 acres in extent. It
was of the usual rectangular shape with rounded corners, and had
four gates, one on each side placed opposite to each other. The
outside defences consisted of three parallel lines of ditches from
12 to 23 feet in width and 9 to 12 feet deep, a stone wall 7 feet
thick, and an earthen rampart 38 feet wide at the base.

Inside the rampart, and directly behind it, was a wide roadway
running all the way round the interior. There were towers at
the gateways, and streets or roadways about 40 feet in width

A Roman Outpost on Tweedside 181

ran across the interior from one gateway to another. The spaces
between these streets were occupied by ranges of stone buildings,
the chief of which was the Principia, better known in Scotland
as the Pretorium, an imposing erection 131 feet by 104 feet —
the largest of its kind known in Britain. It had a court in
front 70 feet by 62 feet, open above, and surrounded on three
sides by an ambulatory 10 feet wide, the roof of which was
supported on pillars. In front of the court was an entrance
hall of greater length than the width of the court and extending

^

PLAN OF EARLY FORT.

into the street in front — a unique feature in Britain. In a
range of five rooms at the back of the building, fronting to
the inner court, the one in the centre contained a sacellum,
probably for the standards and the sacred emblems.

Close by it was a well 25 feet deep, the upper part of which was
filled with building stones, among which was part of an inscribed
tablet ; at 8 feet down was a human skeleton, apparently of
a woman, judging from the two brooches that lay near it ; at
12 feet down an altar, dedicated to Jupiter, and a brass coin of
Hadrian ; from this to 22 feet a medley of bones of animals,
deer-horns, skulls of oxen and horses, mingled with broken.

l82

Joseph Anderson

pottery, soles of shoes, and torn fragments of leather garments ;
at 22 feet a human skull and part of another, and some scale
armour of brass ; at the bottom an iron breastplate, pieces of

ENTRANCE HALL

MH — I — I

w s a 10 u

•a j'o «o it to n to so 100 feet
PLAN OF THE PRINCIPIA.

chain mail, and the boss of a shield, two knives, a sickle, and
a linch-pin, a quern stone, and two stones having the figure
of a boar, the symbol of the twentieth legion, carved on them ;
and, finally, the oaken bucket of the well.

A Roman Outpost on Tweedside 183

Next to the Principia, the largest building was a dwelling-house
built round a central court, probably the house of the commandant.
The spaces between the roads leading from gate to gate were
occupied by long narrow buildings arranged in rows with streets
or lanes between them, serving as officers' quarters, barracks,
granaries, storehouses, workshops, and stables. Their arrange-
ment is shown on a large plan by Mr. Thomas Ross, LL.D.,
architect, and each of the more important buildings is carefully
described by Mr. Curie and compared with analogous construc-
tions in similar forts in England and in Germany, so that the
reader who desires to study the subject in detail may easily
acquire a good working knowledge of the interior economy of a
typical Roman frontier fort of the first or second century.

The amount of rearrangement and reconstruction the fort
and its defences had undergone made it difficult, during the
progress of the work, to obtain a clear idea of the significance
of the various alterations ; but when the whole testimony of
the evidence was sifted and simplified to general conclusions they
are summarised by Mr. Curie as indicating five different phases
of occupation. First there was the original fort constructed by
Agricola, about A.D. 80, which seems to have been partly
reconstructed and occupied by a considerable force till some time
after A.D. 86, when it was suddenly abandoned, and not re-
occupied until the advance into Scotland of Lollius Urbicus in the
reign of Antoninus Pius, about A.D. 140. The forces of Urbicus
would find the fort and its earthworks much as its earlier garrison
had left them, and its re-occupation and the repair of its defences
would naturally follow. By and bye, the more settled conditions
resulting from the construction of the Antonine Vallum between
the Forth and Clyde would admit of a reduction of the garrison
at Newstead, which might account for the alteration of the size of
the fort by the construction of the reducing wall. Some eighteen
or twenty years afterwards there seems to have been a Brigantian
uprising involving a loosening of the hold of the Antonine Vallum,
and probably the loss for a time of such isolated forts as Birrens
and Newstead.

The re-occupation after this opens the final chapter of the
history of the fort. There was much alteration and rebuilding,
the reducing wall was thrown down and a larger garrison installed.
But the reconstructed buildings had less of the character of per-
manency, and it was evident that the hold on the north was
slackening.

o

1 84

Joseph Anderson

4 And then, probably somewhere early in the reign of Commodus (c. A.D. 1 80)
when we know that the British war was pressing heavily, must have come
the end. The Roman grasp of the Vallum must have given way, and with
it their hold of the supporting forts, such as Birrens and Newstead. How
these fell it is improbable that we shall ever know, and yet traces of the
catastrophe which overwhelmed them have been revealed to us after the
lapse of many passing centuries. It is the secret drawn from the wells and
the rubbish pits — a tale of buildings thrown down; of altars concealed,

PLAN OF THE REDUCED FORT.

thrown into ditches, or into pits above the bodies of unburied men ; of
confusion, defeat, abandonment ; of a day in which the long column of the
garrison wound slowly southward across the spurs of the Eildons, leaving
their hearths deserted, and their fires extinct.'

Three separate lines of evidence concur to sustain and corro-
borate these conclusions. There is first the evidence of the super-
position and relation to each other of the buildings of the fort and
its defences. The second line of evidence is derived from the
dates of the coins recovered and the relative positions in which

tfx

.

A Roman Outpost on Tweedside 185

they were found. Altogether 249 coins were found during the
excavation, and these are described with full numismatic detail, and
the evidence they afford is critically discussed by Dr. George Mac-
donald in an appendix of thirty pages. Then there is the evidence
of the pottery, which always plays an important part in the deter-
mination of the chronology of Roman deposits. The nature of
the fabric, the shapes of the vessels and the stamps of the potters
all afford critical indications of date, so that single potsherds that
may seem to the uninitiated to be the most worthless things possible,
may yield important indications of chronology to the archaeologist.

Roman pottery consisted of many varieties of fabric, shape, and
ornamentation, the character of which changed with the fashions of
the times, but in that which is found in Britain certain forms
predominate. Of these the bright red lustrous ware, possessing
a colour and lustre almost resembling sealing-wax, is the most
important. Formerly spoken of as Samian ware, which is a mis-
nomer, it is now generally known as Terra Sigillata, a pedantic
appellation, intended to signify the mode of applying its decoration
by stamping the designs on the interior of the mould in which
the vessels are shaped, so that the decoration appears on the
exterior of the vessel in relief. It was first made in Italy at
Arezzo, but the Aretine potteries declined in the first century ot
the Christian era, and few of their products reached Britain. But
coincident with the decline of the Italian potteries there arose a
colonial manufacture of this red ware in Gaul, from which an
extensive exportation to Britain commenced early in the first
century, and continued throughout the whole of the Roman
occupation of Scotland. In a critical examination of all the pottery
found at Newstead, as luminous as it is comprehensive, and copi-
ously and finely illustrated, Mr. Curie classifies and describes the
different types, indicating their relative dates, the Gaulish potteries
from which they came, and their distribution on Roman sites in
England and on the Continent.

Adjoining the east, south, and west sides of the fort there
were large spaces of less regular form measuring about 7, 14,
and 20 acres respectively, enclosed and defended by ditch and
ramparts. These annexes are a not uncommon feature of the
larger and more permanent Roman frontier forts. In such settle-
ments were found the time-expired soldiers, and the traders and
camp followers, living in tents or wooden huts, or other flimsy
buildings of which no traces now remain. In Britain little has
yet been done in the way of examining or excavating these civil

1 86 Joseph Anderson

settlements, but the experience at Newstead shows that they may
yield even more varied and more important revelations of the
civilisation and culture of their occupants and of their military
neighbours than the fort itself.

In the west annexe stood the baths of the fort, a large block
of buildings 310 feet in length, dating probably from the first
advance of Agricola, and provided with all the apartments and
appliances pertaining to the luxurious customs peculiar to much
warmer climates than that of Caledonia. No other building of
any importance was found in these annexes, and the interest
attached to them lay not in constructions on the surface but
underground, in the wells and rubbish pits so thickly scattered
over their areas. The pits varied greatly in dimensions, and from
4 to over 30 feet in depth. Over a hundred of them, including
ten in the field to the north of the fort, were cleared out. Their
contents were exceedingly miscellaneous, but all the best things
found at Newstead came from them. One pit contained at
20 feet down the skulls of two horses, 2 feet lower two chariot
wheels with their iron tires and a human skull with a sword-
cut in it ; lower still, a pair of shoe-soles with tackets, and the
antler of an elk, and at the bottom, 23 feet down, an oak bucket
with its iron handle and mountings, another horse's skull and
the skulls of five dogs and antlers of red deer. Another con-
tained a whole set of smith's tools and the contents of a smithy,
including five spear-heads, four pioneers' axes, four scythes, and
a sword-blade, with the usual medley of animal bones, a human
skull, broken pottery, scraps of leather garments, shoes, and a
woman's boot, the uppers of which were finely ornamented in
open-work and the sole filled with tackets. Another contained
the bones of nine horses, and underneath them the skeleton of a
female dwarf whom Professor Bryce judged to have been about
twenty-two years of age and only 4 feet 6 inches in stature.

The richest of all the pits was one in the south annexe, 19
feet deep, from which came an iron helmet with visor face-
mask, a helmet of brass embossed with a group of figures repre-
senting a chariot race, another iron helmet undecorated, the ear-
piece of a third helmet of iron, nine bronze discs or phalerae,
each inscribed with the name of the owner, two shoulder-pieces
and two elbow-pieces of bronze, each also having the name of the
owner scratched in cursive letters on the inside face ; a large
embossed circular plate of bronze, two bridle-bits of iron, an iron
armlet, a quern of Niedermendig lava complete with its iron

A Roman Outpost on Tweedside 187

spindle and mountings, a quantity of fragments of ornamented
pottery and of amphorae, torn pieces of leather garments, deer
horns, and skulls of a horse and a dog.

The formidable task of the classification and critical description
of the vast amount of miscellaneous material recovered from
these pits, or casually found in the course of the excavation of
the fort itself, might have daunted many excavators, but Mr.
Curie has accomplished it with signal success. His chapters on
the altars and their inscriptions, the dress, armour and weapons
of the Roman soldier, the tools and implements, transport and
harness with its mountings, and miscellaneous odds and ends,
are really treatises on the several subjects which leave scarcely
any aspect or relation of the objects untouched, and all are
brought up to the level of the latest discoveries.

The value of these chapters to the archaeological student is
greatly enhanced by the fact that Newstead has yielded such a
number of things that are either new, or have been hitherto
very imperfectly known in Britain. The visor masks of the
helmets, which form such a striking feature of the collection
and are so admirably illustrated in the book, are compared
with all the known examples, and reasons assigned for attributing
their purpose to display in tournaments rather than use in actual
warfare. The one still attached to its head-piece, which is em-
bossed with an elaborate representation of carefully dressed and
curling hair, shows a fine type of face, and ' even in its present
mutilated condition must rank as one of the most beautiful things
the receding tide of Roman conquest has left behind it.' It is
also certainly the most marvellously fine example of wrought
iron-work ever seen in this country. The other face-mask of
brass is neither so fine in design or execution, but has its points
of distinction, and is by no means an every-day work of art-
craftsmanship. The embossed helmet of bright yellow brass
with a high triangular peak in front has its head-piece covered
with a design » embossed in high relief, showing a nude figure
driving a chariot to which are harnessed a pair of leopards, and
a winged Victory hovering above.

The varieties of defensive armour found at Newstead include
scale-armour of iron and of brass, chain-mail of circular links,
both in iron and brass, some being riveted and others welded,
breastplates of iron, and shields of which only the ribs or
mountings remained. The offensive weapons included swords
of two types, probably representing the legionary and the

1 88 A Roman Outpost on Tweedside

auxiliary, bronze mountings of scabbards, spear and javelin heads
in great variety of form and size, and arrow and bolt heads.

Caltrops have been often said to have been unknown till
medieval times, but two of different sizes were found at Newstead.
Among the miscellaneous objects of common camp furniture
the camp-kettle of beaten bronze of various sizes, with its iron
bow-handle, was greatly in evidence, and occasionally had the
name of its owner scratched or punctured in it. Besides these
culinary vessels of homely type there were two large and highly
ornate vessels of bronze of the kind to which the Greek name
' Oenochoe ' might be applied. They are really fine works of art
and must have come from Italy.

By no means the least interesting parts of the book are those
in which there can be traced the commingling of the native
culture, and native products, with the culture and products of
the purely Roman civilisation. For instance, a picture may be
drawn in outline of the appearance of the valley of the Tweed,
and the details of the flora and fauna filled in from the reports
on the vegetable and animal remains found on the Roman level,
and identified and described by Mr. H. F. Tagg of the Botanic
Gardens and by Professor Cossar Ewart of Edinburgh University,
who discusses with the ripe knowledge of an expert in the subject
the characteristics and probable descent of the breeds of horses,
cattle, and sheep whose remains were found at Newstead. Then
we have the native inhabitants revealed, if not by their individual
remains, by the Late Celtic decoration of a sword-hilt, and the
ornaments of one or more sword-sheaths and harness mountings.
The presence of native women and children is testified by their
boots and shoes, by the evidences of spinning and weaving and
basket-work, and by the personal ornaments. The brooches,
or fibulae, beads, etc., have a chapter to themselves, and their
enamelled ornamentation is of great beauty and interest.

It is impossible in a brief notice like this to touch upon all the
points of interest that have arisen during the progress of the
excavations, or are connected with the exposition of the character
and relations of the objects found. Let it suffice to say that the
outstanding characteristics of Mr. Curie's book are thoroughness
of treatment and breadth of expert knowledge, the fruits of
experience and resolute research.

JOSEPH ANDERSON.

Reviews of Books

ANNALS OF THE REIGNS OF MALCOLM AND WILLIAM, KINGS OF SCOT-
LAND, A. D. 1153-1214. Collected by Sir Archibald Campbell Lawrie.
Pp. xxxvi, 459. 8vo. Glasgow: James MacLehose & Sons. 1910.
i os. nett.

IN Early Scottish Charters Sir Archibald Lawrie's aim was not merely to
produce correct texts, but to make the charters serve as annals of the
period, by putting each of them, as far as possible, in its true historical
connection. For the succeeding period, corresponding roughly to the
English reigns of Henry II., Richard I. and John, charters are many,
chronicles contemporaneous and circumstantial, and English records
increasingly voluminous. He has, therefore, begun with providing the
setting ; that is, a series of extracts from the chronicles and records,
arranged so as to give a chronologically accurate outline of the history.
Many papal Bulls are included, some as historically valuable, some (I
take it) simply because they can be dated, and therefore can be safely
used as landmarks. And all chronicle notices of even rather obscure
persons are given ; thus the charter student is provided with materials
which hitherto he could only have obtained by laboriously collecting
them himself. I congratulate the editor on what he has accomplished,
and hope that the reception of his work may be such as to encourage
him to proceed.

But the outline history from primary sources is of more general interest.
By restricting his period, he has been able to give practically complete
what his predecessors, including Mr. A. O. Anderson, could only give in
selection. Naturally, most of the book is in Latin ; Gaelic extracts,
being few, are given in Gaelic and English, old French extracts, being
many, in English only, whereby space is saved but colour lost. For the
plan of the work precludes the selection of passages not referring to
Scotland, even for the sake of their literary charm. So the lighter
vein is rare ; we have, however, St. Cuthbert's vengeance on the sacri-
legious bull-baiter of Kirkcudbright (p. 90), and the curious tale of
King Malcolm and his mother (p. 102) ; this latter introduced, I suspect,
as an argument against the authenticity of an often-quoted Kelso charter.
The editor's proneness to scepticism in such matters, so marked a feature
of his previous book, is still at work, but not so much in evidence here as
there. In one case, indeed, that of the Bull of Pope Adrian IV. sub-
jecting the Scottish Bishops to the metropolitan jurisdiction of York, a
quite surprising complacency is shown. The Bull was rightly included

1 90 Lawrie : Annals of Malcolm and William

by Haddan and Stubbs in their collection, for its genuineness is not
altogether impossible. But its best friends could put the case no higher.
It is ' one of a series of late copies, stands in bad company, and is itself
a very questionable document,' so says Cosmo Innes ; it is not a verdict,
but the observation is undeniably just.

The bulk of the book is derived from English historians, who (as
the editor remarks), tell us little or nothing of the internal affairs of
Scotland. But they are far from exhibiting uniformly an anti-Scottish
bias ; clearly King William, in spite of his determined attitude in the
affair of the rival Bishops Hugh and John of St. Andrews, stood well
with the church ; better perhaps than any of the English Kings, his
contemporaries. And in those days all historians were churchmen.

Both Malcolm and William were all their lives pro-Norman, if not
pro-English. And William, after the fiasco of 1 1 74, though sometimes
on bad terms with his southern neighbour, always avoided actual conflict.
From 1210 onwards his policy, if not surrendering the independence
of Scotland, certainly tended to compromise it. That what he did was
contra voluntatem Scotorum (p. 366), is easily credible. But the Treaty
of Norham inaugurated that tempus pads to which men afterwards
looked back as the golden age. To attribute his policy to fear of Celtic
reaction, seems to me to transpose cause and effect ; the texts imply
rather that it was the King's compliance with England which provoked
his magnates, or some of them, to complicity with Macwilliam. As to
the story of an English contingent sent in 1212 to co-operate against
that rebel, the editor seems suspicious, and so am I. Why are the
English records silent on the subject ? But if there was such a con-
tingent, however small, it is not hard to believe that it readily obtained
(in England) full credit for the success of the compaign.

The remarks in the preface as to the legislation attributed to our
early Kings, are interesting, but will not command universal assent.
To call Thomas Thomson * most arbitrary of editors ' is somewhat hasty.
That great scholar's modesty took the form of an almost morbid dislike
of committing himself in prefaces or commentaries ; hence he gave the
world his conclusions, but rarely his reasons. But if his work were to
be done over again by a competent modern, from the same materials,
the result would perhaps differ only in minor details. If such a task is
to be usefully undertaken, it must be on the lines of Miss Bateson's work
for the Selden Society, and from the standpoint of Sir Thomas Craig —
the history of Scottish law must be treated as part of the history of

the law of Europe. , ,_ _

J. MAITLAND THOMSON.

SIR WALTER SCOTT AND THE BORDER MINSTRELSY. By Andrew Lang.

Pp. x, 157. Med. 8vo. London : Longmans, Green & Co. 1910.

55. nett.

To review this argument fairly it would be necessary to repeat it, and that
can scarcely be done in smaller compass than the original. It is an answer
to the interesting work of Colonel Fitzwilliam Elliot in The Trustworthiness

Lang : Scott and the Border Minstrelsy 191

of the Border Ballads (1906) and Further Essays on Border Ballads (1910) ;
chiefly, a refutation of the charge made against Scott in the latter book, of
having joined with Hogg to 'palm off' the ballad of Auld Maitland on the
public. The other subjects are the ballads of Otterburn, Jamie Telfer and
Kinmont Willie.

The discussion of Auld Maitland, which comes first, is the most im-
portant, because the evidence there put forward by Mr. Lang has a bearing
on all the rest of the Border Minstrelsy. Mr. Lang proves conclusively that
Colonel Elliot is wrong in thinking that Auld Maitland was forged by
Hogg, and of course with the exploding of that opinion the allegations
against the good faith of Scott are also cleared away. The proof is in
Hogg's manuscript copy of the ballad now at Abbotsford, and in Hogg's
letter to Scott, dated Ettrick House, June 30 (1802). This letter, which
has never been published as a whole, is remarkably interesting both with
regard to the tradition and collection of ballads in general, and also the
motives and critical skill of Hogg. Hogg, it is clear, was not only
thoroughly and genuinely taken up with the pursuit of ballads over the
country side, but also an excellent critic. Thus he marks the end of
Clerk Sounders and the place where Scott's version of the ballad passes into
another (Sweet William's Ghost) — * All the rest of the song in your edition
is another song altogether, which my mother hath mostly likewise, and I
am persuaded from the change in the stile that she is right, for it is scarce
consistent with the forepart of the ballad.'

It is a pity that Mr. Lang does not give the whole letter, and does not
say what he has omitted. It is partly printed in Mr. Douglas's edition of
Scott's Letters (1894) i. p. 12, but there the technical parts are left out
(including the sentence quoted above) apparently as unfit for the * reading
public,' and here Mr. Lang leaves out a good deal of the end of the letter,
without remark — all the glorious passage about Hogg and his uncle and
how religion interfered with the ballads — 'what a deluge was poured on me
of errors, sins, lusts, covenants broken, burned and buried, legal teachers,
patronage, and what not ! In short, my dram was lost to my purpose.
The mentioning a song put him in a passion.' There never was such a
letter writer as Hogg.

From Hogg's copy of Auld Maitland it is proved that his account of his
mother's recitation is true ; he was not inventing ; he takes down what he
does not understand. He writes :

* With springs ; wall stanes and good o'ern
Among them fast he threw,'

Which Scott corrected :

4 With springalds, stones and gads o' aim.'

There is a grammatical point which Mr. Lang does not mention, which
seems to help in the same direction. The ballad uses ' inon ' for * in ' or
4 on ' or ' upon.'

But sic a gloom inon ae browhead.

192 Lang : Scott and the Border Minstrelsy

Earlier we find :

Then fifteen barks, all gaily good,
Met themen on a day.

So printed ; read

Met them inon a day.

This idiom is evidently found in the original. Hogg's copy is what it pro-
fesses to be ; he wrote down Auld Maitland as accurately as he could from
recitation.

This still leaves the problem : Where did the ballad come from ? It is
not a true ballad ; in style it is a mixture of the ballad and the hack
romance. The latter element comes out in the * springald ' verse —

4 With springalds, stones and gads o' aim
Among them fast he threw.'

This is prosy grammar, such as historians use. Auld M ait land came
into oral tradition from a more or less literary source ; it is not the same
sort of thing as the ballads which have their whole life in oral tradition ; it
belongs to another stock, closely related indeed to the true ballad. That
it was handed on in the same manner as the ballads, that Hogg's mother
knew it, and repeated it in the same way as her other songs, and that
Hogg's account is true, it seems impossible now to question.

The chapters on Otterburn also prove Hogg's good faith. * Hogg had a
copy from reciters — a copy which he could not understand.' It may be
enough, for the present, to recommend Mr. Lang's demonstration to those
who care for these matters ; to do proper justice to it would need as much
space as the original chapters themselves. One thing in it perhaps is doubtful.
Hogg's version gives * Almonshire ' where ' Bambroughshire ' is usually
read ; Hogg knew * Bamborowshire," but both his reciters insisted on
* Almonshire.' Mr. Lang says, and one would like to believe, that
4 Almonshire' is 'Alneshire' or * Alnwickshire,' where is the Percy's
Alnwick Castle. But is there authority in the history of Northumberland
for « Alneshire ' ?

In Jamie Telfer it is shown that Scott did not tamper with the facts as
Colonel Elliot thinks he did ; there are two separate versions of the story,
an Elliot ballad and a Scott ballad dealing the honours differently. As for
the facts, there are none ; the story is impossible with the geography as given
in any version ; though ' in a higher sense ' it may be true as a general state-
ment of what might and did happen in raids and recoveries of driven cattle
on the Borders.

Klnmont Willie remains as a problem hard to solve. The external evi-
dence that decides Auld Maitland is wanting in this case, except what is given
in Satchells' narrative, and the relation of Satchells to the ballad may be con-
strued in different ways. It is minutely examined by Colonel Elliot, with
the conclusion that Satchells was turned into the ballad by Scott. The
other side is presented here, not so as to deny Scott's share in the poem of
Kinmont Willie, but so as to make it probable that Satchells, in the first place,

Lang : Scott and the Border Minstrelsy 193

knew a ballad on the subject of the rescue at Carlisle, and secondly, that
Scott knew a traditional ballad independent of Satchells. The whole dis-
cussion brings out, among other things, the dangerous nature of internal
evidence and a priori judgments on the ballad style. The following
example deserves to be borne in mind as a warning :

* By the cross of my sword, says Willie then,
I'll take my leave of thee.'

' It looks like Scott's work,' says Mr. Lang. * But it is not Scott's work, it
is in Satchells. ' Mr. Lang argues that if Scott had been making up his
ballad from Satchells he would not have left this out. But it does not
appear in Kinmont Willie.

Mr. Lang has controverted Colonel Elliot on most points, but it would
be wrong to overlook the services that his antagonist has rendered to this
branch of study ; antiquarians and lovers of poetry will agree that this
debate has had good results — not only in prose, but in the three ballads of
his own which Mr. Lang has given at the end of his volume.

W. P. KER.

THE PARALLEL BETWEEN THE ENGLISH AND AMERICAN CIVIL WARS.
The Rede Lecture delivered in the Senate House, Cambridge, on I4th
June, 1910. By C. H. Firth, M.A., Regius Professor of Modern
History, Oxford. Pp. 50. Cr. 8vo. Cambridge : University Press.
1910. is. 6d. nett.

PROFESSOR FIRTH was certainly happily inspired in his choice of a subject
for his Rede lecture. There is no man better qualified to speak of the
Great Rebellion and its consequences, while the knowledge which he
displays of the great struggle between North and South is really remarkable.
He deals in turn with the political, military, and personal aspects of the com-
parison, selecting Cromwell and Lincoln as the great representatives of the
two contests, and a most interesting and suggestive parallel it is which he
draws between them, not altogether to Cromwell's advantage as a man,
though of course Cromwell was a great soldier as well as a political leader.
Both struggles are shown to have had as their formal causes the great
question of sovereignty, but in England the contest between one man and
a nation would never have resulted in a war but for the complication of
the political question by religious issues. The King was only able to fight
because the Puritan assault on the Church provided him with a party. In
America a majority was contending with a minority to decide whether,
as Lincoln's Inaugural expressed it, ' in a free government the minority
have a right to break it up whenever they choose,' to prove * that when
ballots have fairly and constitutionally decided there can be no appeal to
bullets.' Here too a question of conscience came in, and it was Lincoln's
great achievement that he combined the cause of the union with that of the
slaves, inducing those whose zeal for one cause was so great that they were
prepared to sacrifice the other object to nevertheless remain in co-operation
until the two causes became practically fused.

194 Firth : English and American Civil Wars

The military parallel is not less suggestively handled. It is pointed out
that in both struggles the victorious side owed much to the assistance of the
naval forces of the nation and to the possession of greater resources. But
the North had the advantage over the Parliament in having for it from
the first all that the country possessed of a professional army. Yet this
trained nucleus was not properly utilised to leaven the raw levies of the
North, and whereas the Parliament owed its victory to its success in creating
a disciplined and organised force while the Royalists remained undisciplined
and therefore inefficient, the North achieved success in the end not by superior
discipline and soldierliness, nor by superior strategy, but by sheer weight
of numbers and a relentless policy of mere attrition. If Grant be contrasted
with Lee and Jackson the comparison favours the vanquished far more than
it does if Cromwell be matched against Rupert.

Finally Professor Firth deals with the settlements which followed the
wars, and the treatment meted out to the vanquished. The North may
appear to more advantage here, but between 1650 and 1865 political
education had progressed, and the attitude of the American nation towards
the necessity of compromise was well ahead of the English two hundred
years earlier ; moreover, in England stern measures were only taken after
the Second Civil War. The lands of the Southerners were not con-
fiscated, but they were none the less ruined by the emancipation of the
slaves and the monstrous folly of giving the franchise to the emancipated
negroes, while the ex-Confederates were deprived of political power, has no
parallel in England. And this enfranchising of a class unfitted to exercise
political power has had, as it always will, very bad results, so much so that
Professor Firth compares its consequences to the legacy which Cromwell's
Irish policy has left behind.

C. T. ATKINSON.

THE LIFE OF BENVENUTO CELLINI. A new version by Robert H.
Hobart Cust, M.A. Vol. I. Pp. xxxvii, 390. Vol. II. Pp. xx, 533.
With portrait and many illustrations. Post 8vo. London : G. Bell
& Sons. 1910. 255. net.

AMONGST artistic autobiographies none stands quite so high for vividness
of interest, picturesqueness of incident, and abandon in telling, as that
written by Benvenuto Cellini, the celebrated artist-craftsman and sculptor
of Florence. Mr. Arthur Symons said : ' He hurls at you this book of
his own deeds that it may smite you into acquiescent admiration,' and
reading his story afresh, in the new translation by Mr. R. H. Hobart
Cust, one admits at once the vital success which attended his literary
adventure.

While Cellini's reputation as an artist is not perhaps what it was, his
great technical finesse being required to palliate the over-ornateness of
his style, his name still remains synonymous with all that is most
characteristic of renaissance skill in jewellery and small-scale sculpture.
Yet, as Mr. Cust points out, it is something of an irony of fate that

Gust : Benvenuto Cellini 195

the Autobiography should have acquired for him a fame such as none of
his much vaunted works could ever have secured for themselves.

Mr. Gust has founded his translation upon the learned Italian texts
of Professor Orazio Bacci and of Signori Rusconi and Valeri, both of
which appeared in 1901, and his principal object — in the main very
happily achieved — has been to reproduce in English the Italian spirit
of the original. He regrets, indeed, that it is impossible to translate
into an English equivalent the Florentine slang used so volubly by the
narrator himself, and, pleading that the ephemeral nature of such argot
makes its use inexpedient, professes pity for those to whom the original
is a sealed book. Still, for even exact students of Italian, the slang of
sixteenth century Florence must have lost its real savour, and we who
cannot follow its subtilties are not badly off with the directness and
forcefulness of the translator's renderings. To this careful translation he
has added many useful and illuminating footnotes ; a full bibliography
(compiled by Mr. Sidney Churchill) of Cellini literature in ten European
languages ; a list of Cellini's works derived from contemporary documents ;
and a catalogue, founded chiefly on the researches of M. Eugene Plon
and Mr. Churchill, of pieces by the master still extant.

The book, which is in two volumes, is well illustrated by over sixty
half-tone plates, chiefly of important works by Cellini.

JAMES L. CAW.

THE ITINERARY OF JOHN LELAND IN OR ABOUT THE YEARS 1535-1543.
Parts IX., X., and XI. With two Appendices, a Glossary, and General
Index. Edited by Lucy Toulmin Smith. Vol. V. Pp. xxii, 352. With
two Maps. Foolscap 4to. London : George Bell & Sons. 1910.
1 8s. nett.

THE editor and publishers of this important work deserve the utmost com-
mendation on the successful termination of their united undertaking. As
each volume appeared we have not withheld in the pages of this Review
(vols. v. 98-9, 478, vi. 294-6) our admiration for the pains and skill that
Miss Toulmin Smith has exercised in making her labours as editor useful
to her readers and just to her author. The last volume of the series now
before us shows, as it was to be expected, a continuation of her former care
and painstaking research in doing ample justice to her subject.

Though this volume covers a wide field, comprising what may be
regarded as a separate tour of the indefatigable antiquary, it is of special
interest to north-country students inasmuch as it includes the counties of
Northumberland, Durham, Westmorland, Cumberland, and parts of
Lancashire and Yorkshire. Leland's route in the northern counties has
been set out in an excellent map, showing the order in which he visited the
various places, the base from whence he started and the direction of his
journey home. The bishops and bishopric of Durham, like those of
Lincoln, Worcester, Hereford and Canterbury, come in for a full discussion,
and particulars are also given of several of the religious houses.

196 Leland : Itinerary

Miss Toulmin Smith evidently regards the preface of her final volume as
supplementary to what has gone before, for she has collected additional
references to her author's career and to the manuscripts and pieces of manu-
script of his writings. Looking down the list and comparing it with the
table of manuscripts and editions given in the first volume, one is glad to
acknowledge that Leland has at last found an interpreter worthy of his
reputation.

Students will thank the editor for the general index which covers the five
volumes. In these days of pace and pressure, such a time-saving apparatus
is always welcome. The glossary, which enumerates the principal archaic
words and explains them in the senses in which Leland understood them, is
also a valuable addition. Seldom has it been our pleasure to bear witness
to such excellent work, and we take leave of Miss Toulmin Smith with
sincere regret.

JAMES WILSON.

LECTURES ON THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. By Lord Acton. Edited by
J. N. Figgis and R. V. Laurence. Pp. 378. 8vo. London :
Macmillan & Co., Ltd. 1910. ios. nett.

THESE lectures, which were delivered at Cambridge during the Academical
years 1895-1899, form, as stated by the present Lord Acton in a letter
to the Times, the last of the four volumes containing his father's col-
lected notes ; they are edited by Mr. Figgis and Mr. Laurence. In
expressing his thanks to these gentlemen, Lord Acton points out the
difficulty under which they laboured owing to the fact that a homogeneous
text had to be evolved from two different manuscripts, portions of which
were fragmentary only ; but they appear to have executed their task
very successfully. A book upon so important a period of history by
such an author is most valuable. It is the work of one fully acquainted
with the literature of his subject and fully qualified to give a well-balanced
and judicial expression of opinion.

Lord Acton was both a peer and a Roman Catholic, and he writes
of a great event which shook to their foundations both the peerage and
the Church of France, and which shook and has permanently weakened
both institutions in every country where they existed. Yet we have
here no exhibition of aristocratic or priest-bound prejudice. He has, it
is true, a word to say for a Creed, observing that liberty apart from
belief is liberty with a good deal of the substance taken out of it, and
that 'nations that have not the self-governing force of religion within
them are unprepared for freedom' — a remark which the subsequent history
of France itself may be held to justify. But there is no exaggerated
declamation against the horrors of the Reign of Terror. On the contrary,
this is his conclusion : ' The Revolution will never be intelligibly known
to us until we discover its conformity to the common law, and recognize
that it is not utterly singular and exceptional, that other scenes have been
as horrible as these, and many men as bad.'

To the casual observer the Revolution in France which closed the

Acton: The French Revolution 197

eighteenth century may seem to have been a bolt from the blue, or, as
Lord Acton expresses it, a 'meteor from the unknown.' It was not so
to him, but rather the product of historic influences ; and it is with
these sources from which it sprang — the causes which led up to it — that
his opening lectures deal. Among the heralds of the Revolution the
author includes certain French writers of the eighteenth century who
contributed by the promulgation of their views to the general feeling of
dissatisfaction with things as they were. Whatever tyranny existed, it
does not appear to have been exerted, as in more recent times in Russia, in
suppressing a free expression of opinion. It seems to have been rather
fashionable, among men of leisure and rank, to play with ideas which,
when put into practice, were destined to make quick work of all
fashionable society.

These writers were by no means of one type, and embraced Christian
divines, lawyers, philosophers, and politicians. Maultrot, an ecclesiastical
lawyer whose work was published just three years before the climax,
identified the principles of 1688 with the Canon Law and rejected
divine right. Fenelon was, says Lord Acton, * the first who saw through
the majestic hypocrisy of the court, and knew that France was on the road
to ruin.' In his judgment, * power is poison ; and as kings are nearly
always bad, they ought not to govern but only to execute the law.'
D'Argenson, Minister for Foreign Affairs in 1745, cwas perpetually
contriving schemes of fundamental change, and is the earliest writer
from whom we can extract the system of 1789.' The influence of
such men as Turgot and of Rousseau, himself a Swiss and an upholder
of the Swiss Republic, was doubtless great.

But there was another influence even greater than that of individual
writers. It was to be found in the fact of the American Republic. In
the struggle of these Colonies against Great Britain all France had
sympathized, since it was a struggle against her ancient enemy. In the
success which followed it the friends of freedom in France, who had
been somewhat dreamy and speculative over the subject, saw an example
of theory put into practice and a nation in which democracy ruled alone
and as it might yet do in their own country, if only the opportunity arose.
What proved ultimately to be the opportunity did not seem at first a
likely one. * The confluence of French theory with American example
caused the Revolution to break out, not in an excess of irritation and
despair, but in a moment of better feeling between the nation and the
king.' The calling of the States General, a constitutional act by an
amiable king, pointed rather to an improvement in the existing state of
things, and yet that convocation was the beginning of the end. The
king wavered between the aristocracy and the people ; his weakness
and that of his supporters was manifested; and the masses at last realized
the strength which lay in their numbers, and that their former tyrants
were really in their power. The Bastille fell, and the revolt became a
revolution.

The French Revolution was for a long time, especially in this country,
identified with its excesses. It was not, men said, a revolution, but a

198 Acton : The French Revolution

reign of terror, a devilish outburst of atheism and cruelty, stained by the
murder of a good king and a beautiful queen, and sending into exile an
ancient aristocracy whose members were reduced to giving music and
dancing lessons, or teaching their own language so as to earn the bare
means of existence. To it and to the fears which it aroused are to be
attributed the extravagances of men like our own Braxfield and the dire
fate of such harmless individuals as Thomas Muir. The cause of reform
was set back, and every effort to ameliorate the condition of the masses
was apt to be identified with French infidelity. The enemies of progress
rejoiced. But we trust it is not true, as stated by Lord Acton, that
Pitt refused to save Louis XVI., because his execution would have raised a
storm in England sufficient to submerge the Whigs.

Yet of the tyranny, the religious hypocrisy, the preposterous class
privileges, which preceded and brought about the Revolution, one heard
little. That time has passed. That the Revolutionary party committed
terrible mistakes it is impossible to deny. In its wild efforts to secure
liberty it for a time destroyed all liberty, and the country only exchanged
one tyranny for another. Nevertheless, the cause was a good one. Lord
Acton recognizes a much weaker right in the Americans to rebel than that
which the French could claim. But the American movement resulted
at once in a well-established and permanent constitution, while the French
had many a stormy year before them and strange experiences in the way of
rulers. For they took from the Americans 'a theory of revolution, not
a theory of government.*

To deal with a subject such as this in the course of a few lectures
implies much compression of historical detail, yet enough has been given to
render these pages bright and interesting, although men will seek in Lord
Acton the able expounder of principles and the critic of men and measures
rather than the narrator of a picturesque story.

W. G. SCOTT MONCRIEFF.

BRITISH CREDIT IN THE LAST NAPOLEONIC WAR. By Audrey Cunning-
ham, B.A. Trin. Coll. Dublin, of Girton College, Cambridge. With
an Appendix containing a reprint of Des Finances de I 'Angleterre. By
H. Lasalle. Pp. vi, 146. Crown 8vo. Cambridge : University Press.
1910. 2s. nett.

A SIDE of Napoleon's policy which has been subjected to much adverse
criticism is the Continental System, the attack on British trade by attempt-
ing to close Continental ports to British merchants and goods ; while he
was pursuing this policy he is said to have committed a great blunder by
allowing corn to be imported into Britain in 1810, when the country was
greatly in need of it. Miss Cunningham has taken up this aspect of the
Napoleonic Wars, with the object of shewing that, though the Emperor's
project failed, it was not a great mistake based upon obsolete mercantilist
theories, but a well-considered attempt to undermine the whole fabric of
British credit by depleting the gold reserve in the Bank of England, and
thus to attain indirectly the object which the Trafalgar victory had shewn
him could not be accomplished by a direct attack.

Cunningham : British Credit 199

Miss Cunningham gives an interesting account of contemporary French
opinion on the subject of finance. Neither past experience nor the writings
of pamphleteers, Paine, D'Hauterive, etc., inclined the French people to put
much confidence in a system of public borrowing or in any connection
between the government and the banks. Lasalle, whose Des Finances de
F Angleterre, in which the facts and figures are taken from recognised British
authorities, is printed in the appendix, makes a careful examination into the
position of the Bank, which he thinks had been practically insolvent since
the suspension of cash payments in 1797. The writer most in touch with
Napoleon was De Guer, who as an tmigr£ had studied British finance at
first hand. He points out the danger of an excessive issue of paper money,
and shews that Britain has difficulty in paying subsidies and supplying her
armies in countries where she has no commercial credit, and must either
lose on her foreign exchanges or export specie.

Napoleon himself, though not a financier, held strong views as to the
harmfulness of a weak gold reserve, of public borrowing and paper currency,
all of which he saw existing in Britain. In 1806, therefore, he began his
attack on British credit by the issue of the Berlin Decree, followed by the
Milan Decree, aiming at keeping British goods out of the Continent ; and
he also allowed the import of corn, because he thought specie must be
exported to pay for it. The decrees could not be strictly carried out, and
the defection of Russia ruined the scheme, but, even so, the results were
severely felt in Britain. There was great distress, many bankruptcies,
much unemployment, supplies of gold were hard to get, and expenses for
the armies abroad were difficult to meet, and the Bank reserve fell from
^7,855,470 in 1808 to £2,036,910 in 1815. Nevertheless the attempt was
a failure, and British credit was not undermined. Miss Cunningham
attributes this chiefly to the prosperity of agriculture during the period, to
the facilities for trade with other countries than Europe, and to the confi-
dence of the people in the stability of the Government. She points the
moral that, though Napoleon failed, our credit system is far more complex
now, and that its fall would be correspondingly greater. Therefore, we
should see to it that our reserve is sufficient and our financial position secure.
Miss Cunningham has given an interesting study of a very important period
in our financial history.

THEODORA KEITH.

THE STORY OF PROVAND'S LORDSHIP : THE MANSE OF THE HOSPITAL
OF ST. NICHOLAS. By William Gemmell, M.B., F.S.A. Pp. 171.
With Illustrations. Crown 8vo. Glasgow : Hay Nisbet & Co.,
Ld. 1910. 35 6d. nett.

WHEN, a few years ago, the public began to hear about a pre-reforma-
tion house as still existing in Glasgow, many people — including the
present writer — were very doubtful about this. Those who have seen
the great changes and transformations of the last forty years, within
which period the city has been almost rebuilt, might well be excused
for their scepticism, even after a passing glance at the house. As seen

200 Gemmell : The Story of Provand's Lordship

from the outside, it would hardly strike the ordinary passer-by as much
different from houses of a later time to be seen in many provincial
towns and villages where the exigencies of modern life are not so pressing
as in a great city.

But a minute inspection of the house all round and throughout, presents
certain features which could not but arrest the attention of an antiquary or
architect who had knowledge of domestic architecture. It contains features
which are not of the ordinary kind, to be found in old town family
residences.

The plan at once suggests that this house was not built for a family one,
although it has been altered in later times and made suitable for this
purpose; but rather as the common residence of members belonging to
some ecclesiastical establishment, and that it was such a house is clearly
shewn in this volume, in which Dr. Gemmell writes of its geographical posi-
tion, and the documentary evidence connected with it, and Mr. Whitelaw
of its architecture. The house is three storeys high, with three rooms
on each storey, separated by thick walls and approached by a stair,
from the landing of which each mid-room enters, the other two rooms
being reached by projecting timber galleries such as were frequently
used in our old castles and houses. In references to the middle storey,
these rooms are spoken about in 1589 as the 'north-mid chalmer' and the
{ south mid-chalmer,' by the occupant of the mid-chalmer.

From the situation of the house in relation to the Cathedral and to
the bishop's palace, the outer wall of which was within a few yards
distance, Dr. Gemmell identifies it as the manse or clergy-house of the
Hospital of St. Nicholas, and for the priests serving at the altars of the
same in the Cathedral, and also for the Prebendary of Balernock. This
hospital was founded by Bishop Andrew Muirhead in 1471, and, as
the name implies, it served the purpose of a modern inn for the reception
of travellers and strangers. By a piece of good luck the arms of the
bishop can still be seen carved on the building, thus practically dating
the principal portion. On the rear of the house another stone bears
the date 1670, shewing, what the architectural features also shew, that
this part is later. This is further confirmed by a sundial, which could
hardly be earlier than the seventeenth century. Some of the other
details, such as the fireplaces, clearly confirm these two periods.

Such is the house which, amid the ever-changing scenes of Glasgow,
has survived all the ups and downs of more than four centuries and come
down to our day almost alone. From this most interesting volume by Dr.
Gemmell and his coadjutors we learn that the house was in danger of
being swept away when a few gentlemen, in the name of The Provand's
Lordship Club, purchased it and so saved it from immediate destruction.
Their venture was not a commercial speculation, but an effort to uphold
the dignity of the city as an ancient and historical one. And this book on
the history of its oldest house should receive a warm welcome. It is well
illustrated, and has a good index.

THOMAS Ross.

Cobb : The Rationale of Ceremonial 201

THE RATIONALE OF CEREMONIAL, 1540-1543. Edited by Cyril S.
Cobb, M.A., B.C.L. Alcuin Club Collections, XVIII. Pp. Ixxv, 80.
With Illustrations. 8vo. London : Longmans, Green & Co. 1910.
I os.

LITURGICAL students who recognise the debt of gratitude they owe to
the Alcuin Club for giving them access to original sources of information
will welcome the above work. In this case the sources are two MSS.,
one at Lambeth and the other in the British Museum. The interest of
the Rationale lies not only in itself, but also in that it opens the door to
a comparison between the Reformation movement in England and in
Germany. This is admirably dealt with by Mr. Cobb in his Introduc-
tion. Erasmus, in deploring the destructive violence that accompanied
the Reformation abroad, asked, ' Is there no middle course ? ' Something
of this middle course was indicated by the Rationale. It was not, it is
true, a revision of the old services, but it was an attempt to give them a
higher religious value by making them more intelligible to the people. It
distinguished between things ' necessary for a Christian man's life ' and

* rites and ceremonies devised by men,' and it sought to remove the danger
of superstition by explaining the inner meaning of externalism.

A study of Appendix I. will show the student that its desire to popularise,
in the best sense of the term, public worship, was both in keeping with the
traditions of the Church of England as well as with the tone of con-
temporary religious literature.

Though now printed for the first time, it has an importance that is due
to its probable date. While not unmindful of present evils, nor lacking in
insistence upon that spiritual character of Religion, which was the essence
of the Reformation, it exemplifies that desire for continuity which charac-
terised Anglican Reform, and which justifies Mr. Cobb's statement that

* there is nothing in the Rationale which the English Church cannot accept
to-day.'

Facsimiles are included of some of the handwritings of the two MSS.,
together with other interesting matter. The footnotes betoken wide
reading. This work is a real and valuable contribution to learning.

E. M. BLACKIE.

BERCY. Par M. Lucien Lambeau. Pp. 506. 4to. With Illustrations.
Paris : Ernest Leroux. 1910. 12 fr. 50.

THIS volume is the first of a series of monographs planned by the General
Council of the Seine, which are to collect and combine the available
materials into a history of the communes which were united to Paris in
1859 up till the time of their annexation. That the author is well qualified
for his task is amply proved.

The district of Bercy lies to the south-east of Paris, on the right bank
of the Seine, and M. Lambeau gives a full account of its topography from
the fourteenth century onwards, with accompanying plans. The owners
and tenants of the various sections, some of them distinguished names in

202 Lambeau : Bercy

the annals of France, are fully discussed, as also the Seigneurie, with
the chateau and its treasures. The town of Bercy and its social, political,
industrial, and ecclesiastical history naturally occupies the greater part of
the book. It was formed into a commune in 1790, and then in 1859,
with the other neighbouring communes, became incorporated with Paris.

M. Lambeau's volume is thus full of information on the growth of
municipal and communal institutions, the progress of industry in a suburban
township, and the gradual establishment of ecclesiastical foundations. The
great princes of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were intimately
associated with the history of Bercy, and they import a hint of splendour
and romance into the author's sober narrative.

A point of modern interest lies in the frequent references in the
sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth century records to the flooding of
the Seine, which from time to time caused great distress and damage to the
town and its occupants : the river sometimes rose to a height of 24 feet ;
and in 1658 the castle and park were submerged.

A valuable section of the volume is the appendix, containing ' Pieces
Justificatives ' from the National Archives, upon which much of M.
Lambeau's history is founded. The illustrations are numerous and finely

executed. . ., T

MARY LOVE.

THE FIRST DUKE AND DUCHESS OF NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE. By the
author of A Life of Sir Kenelm Digby. Pp. xi, 287. With
14 Illustrations. 8vo. London: Longmans, Green & Co. 1910.
I os. 6d. nett.

THE Duke and Duchess of Newcastle are among the most interesting
figures in Caroline history. The friend of Hobbes, the patron of Ben
Jonson, Newcastle was also for a while tutor to Charles II., while he
played a stirring part in the great Civil War, and probably spent more on
behalf of the royal cause than any other cavalier. It is true that nowadays
his writings are but little known, but his book on horsemanship was highly
esteemed in its own day; while his work as dramatist won this distinction,
at least, that selections therefrom were included by Charles Lamb in his
memorable anthology, Specimens of English dramatic Poets who lived about
the Time of Shakespeare. A kindred reason gives interest to the Duchess,
for, albeit some of her contemporaries regarded her as mad, and although
Pepys speaks of her with singular scorn, her memory was dearly beloved
of Elia, who mentions her with affectionate admiration in many of his
essays and letters.

Save for a few quotations from the Welbeck MSS., the biography now
before us does not set forth any documents likely to be unknown to the
average student of history ; and, in the main, it is based on comparatively
familiar authorities. But granting this limitation, the book really fulfils
its purpose remarkably well; for it narrates Newcastle's career in such a
fashion as to make the more important events stand out clearly, while it
pays particular attention to such of these events as were misrepresented by
the Duchess in her life of her husband, and frequently serves to fill up

First Duke and Duchess of Newcastle 203

gaps which were left by the noble authoress. For instance, the Duchess
gives only a short paragraph to Newcastle's teaching of Charles II., and
therein depicts him as in every way a perfect tutor; but the work at
present in question deals with this subject at length, and, besides furnish-
ing many fascinating personal details, shows that in some respects
Newcastle was positively Machiavellian in his training of the royal pupil.
This admirable tone of fairness characterizes the entire volume. The
anthor is no hero-worshipper, but aims throughout at veracity, and deals
frankly alike with failings and with merits. Nor is this true only as
regards what he says of the Newcastles themselves, for it marks also all
that he writes of Charles I. and Henrietta Maria, while it distinguishes
his handling of the political history of the period, in which particular he
does not betray predilections for either royalists or puritans.

W. G. BLAIKIE MURDOCH.

FROM THE RESTORATION TO THE DEATH OF WILLIAM III. (1660-
1702). By Richard Lodge, M.A., LL.D. [The Political History
of England. In 12 volumes. Edited by William Hunt, D.Litt.,
and Reginald L. Poole, M.A., LL.D. Vol. VIII.] Pp. xix, 517.
Demy 8vo. London : Longmans, Green & Co. 1910. 75. 6d. nett.

THE period covered by this volume has been partially dealt with by
Lingard and fully by Ranke. It has also been treated by Hallam in
his Constitutional History , which takes constant account of * politics.'
Macaulay's History^ as Professor Lodge notes, still dominates the public
mind.

Professor Lodge is of the school of Ranke rather than of Macaulay.
His volume has none of the premeditated brilliance of the great
Whig historian; it is free from that l stamping emphasis' of which
Lord Morley once complained. But the style fits the subject, being
concise yet supple ; it is laudably free from needless rhetoric, being set
rather in the * scientific' key. The order of treatment of the subjects
(which cannot always be chronological) could hardly be bettered. Foreign
politics are brought into adequate relation to the main theme, while the
position in Scotland and Ireland at the various crises is sketched lucidly
and with liberal insight.

It seems to us, however, that there is something rather grudging, if
not indeed confusing, in the final estimate of William. He is rated
as having no superior among his English predecessors, but is forbidden
to take his place among the greatest, not because of inherent inferiority
or any real sacrifice of English to Dutch interests, but simply because
he was not an Englishman. This seems to us taking away with one
hand what was being given with the other. As William's place in
history is to be judged by his actual achievement (the comparative merit
of which Professor Lodge does not dispute) can his mere Dutch descent
and attachment form such discounting elements ?

Altogether the volume is a most welcome contribution to the literature
of the subject, and should find a place in the front rank of the studies

204 Lodge: History of England, 1660-1702

of a period that is extremely interesting but difficult to handle because
of its * unstable equilibrium.'

Besides containing a list of authorities, the book has a good index, and
is supplied with maps showing the English colonization of North America
and illustrating William's campaigns.

A. R. COWAN.

A HISTORY OF ABINGDON. By James Townsend, M.A. Pp. 183.
With Illustrations. 410. London : Henry Frowde. 1910. 75. 6d.
nett.

dbbendonensibus Abbendonensh hoc opusculum. Mr. Townsend's dedication at
once gives the clue to both the merits and defects of his book. Strong local
interest is its most striking feature. It is right and pleasant that an
Abingdon scholar should write the history of Abingdon school, and that
Abingdon churches should find a chronicler in one who has himself heard
the c peal of great sweetness ' from their bells. At the same time the path
of the local historian is beset with pitfalls, and a town history dealing with
a period of twelve centuries is a difficult task. On the whole, Mr. Town-
send's book belongs rather to the old than the new school of historical
writing, and is not altogether free from some defects of the older method.
First and worst of these is the tendency to rely upon secondary rather than
primary sources of information. A glance through the authorities referred
to in the footnotes of the present work at once suggests this criticism. One
example may be given. An interesting episode in Abingdon history was
an attack made on the abbey in 1327, 'in warlike manner.' Walls were
broken, houses were burnt, vestments, chalices, church ornaments were
stolen, while the sick prior was dragged off to Bagley, and threatened with
the loss of his head if he would not do what his assailants wanted. Under
this compulsion the latter secured various deeds, one binding the abbey and
convent to them in ^1000, others conferring certain privileges, among
them the right to have a provost and bailiffs for the custody of the town, to
be elected annually by themselves. Mr. Townsend quotes in full the
account given by Anthony Wood in his History of Oxford, written in the
seventeenth century. This he supplements by rather casual reference to
4 state papers of Edward III.' to ' Edward III., patentrolls ' (no page refer-
ence) and to a passage in the Chronicles of Edward I. and 11. (Rolls Series)
i. 345. This method is putting the cart before the horse. There is plenty
of contemporary material for an account. The printed calendars of Patent
and Close Rolls (especially Cal. Pat.Rolls, 1327-1330, pp. 151, 210, 221,
222, 287, 288, 289, 526, 559) contain the series of commissions of oyer
and terminer set up to investigate the matter, as well as letters taking the
abbey under royal protection. Primary sources such as these should have
been thoroughly ' despoiled ' — to use the expressive phrase of a French
historian — before secondary authorities were cited.

On page 27 Mr. Townsend quotes from Mr. J. R. Green's Short History
a tale of the sufferings of two Brothers Minor at a grange belonging to
Abingdon Abbey. * Grancia,' by the way, finds a closer equivalent in c cell '

Townsend : A History of Abingdon 205

— that is, a dependent house. It would have been worth while to seek out
the original, though Green does not indicate the source, if only to read the
very characteristic visions and retribution with which the story closes. It may
be found in Bartholomew of Pisa's Liber Conformitatum^ and appears as an
appendix in Mr. A. G. Little's recent edition of the De Jldventu Fratrum
Minorum in dngliam, or, Englished, in Father Cuthbert's translation of the
same work.

The history of the great abbey forms a large and interesting part of the
book, though a few of Mr. Townsend's obiter dicta concerning monasticism
might give a captious critic opportunities. Medieval monasticism knew
nothing of the 'cell' in the modern sense. It is therefore unwise to say
that Blaecman built a church 'with monastic cells.' Freeman (Norman
Conquest^ iv. 143-4, n.) and the Abingdon Chronicle (Rolls Series), 1.474, are
cited as authorities, but Freeman, translating the chronicler's phrase c ad
monachorum formam habitaculorum ' as ' buildings of a monastic pattern,'
avoided the trap into which the present author falls.

Mr. Townsend's book is full of patient work, interesting detail and an
enthusiasm which goes far to excuse both some amateurishness of treatment,
and a few easily remediable defects such as those mentioned above.
* L'amour est la veritable clef de 1'histoire,' said M. Sabatier. If so, Mr.
Townsend will not find many closed doors.

The facsimiles of documents, which have been chosen in place of more

conventional illustrations, are admirable. TT

HILDA JOHNSTONE.

THE ANNUAL REPORT OF THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION FOR
THE YEAR 1908. In two Volumes. Vol. I. 8vo. Pp. 539.
Washington : Government Printing Office. 1909.

So numerous are the papers and so extensive the material in the yearly
report of the American Historical Association that its publication (usually
later than its nominal date) loses nothing by keeping. The present volume
registers discussions on the relations of geography to history, on teaching
methods, on research in English history and on American and colonial and
revolutionary history. Special articles also deal with census records as
historical and economic data, and with the American newspapers of the
eighteenth century as sources of information. Citations establish the deep
interest of contemporary journals, which are not only stocked with domestic
fact from 1704 onward, but reach the tragic point in the Revolution time.
Perhaps one chief characteristic of such evidence scarcely receives due
attention ; that is the fact that its short views, its day to day register, and its
futility in foresight, emphasise the occurrence of the unexpected in the
actual course of events.

History in this diary form, in which to-day's fact is not coloured by
to-morrow's result, probably has possibilities far beyond current estimates
of historical method. Most writers of history deal with the beginning as
a part of the end. The other way about, where to-morrow is not assumed,
has much to say for itself, and in that mode newspaper evidence is invalu-
able, if not supreme.

206 Report of American Historical Association

Military history receives its due in a triple criticism of the Wilderness
campaign, a general, who was a participant, discussing Grant's conduct of
it and insisting on Lee's 'one fatal blunder'; a colonel condemning Grant's
'hammering tactics' and praising Lee's superior skill ; and a major holding
between the two a balance heavily leaning to Lee's side.

Many very important facts are garnered in (i) an elaborate series of
reports on archives of Maine, Missouri and Washington ; and (2) a
list of journals and acts of the thirteen original colonies and the Floridas
preserved in the Record Office in London. The hundred pages of this list
strikingly show how great a labour was the substructure and administration
of the American States before the Revolution.

FROM METTERNICH TO BISMARCK. A Text-Book of European History,
1815-1878. By L. Cecil Jane. Pp. 288. With Plans and Maps.
Crown 8vo. Oxford : Clarendon Press. 1910. 45. 6d.

THIS account of sixty-three years of European history covers the difficult
period from the re-settlement under the Holy Alliance to the entirely new
era of Nationality. To say that it is well and carefully written is to say
little. Metternich's position and outlook is treated with an insight and
sympathy that can only come from real knowledge and study, and the
gradual growth of the claims of Nationalities and of the recognition by the
European Powers of the Republican Idea is exceedingly well brought out.
The writer's account of the affairs of France is usually very happy, although
the childlessness of the Due de Berri (p. 26) is a misleading phrase, and the
description of the accession of Louis Philippe, ' The Paris crowds wanted
loaves of bread ; they received a citizen king, his family, cash boxes, and
umbrella,' is a true refrain from Thackeray. The rise of Bismarck and
his system is also excellently recounted, and the whole book is one that
gives instructive pleasure to its readers.

THE OFFICIAL RECORDS OF THE MUTINY IN THE BLACK WATCH. A
London Incident of the Year 1743. Compiled and edited by W. D.
MacWilliam. Pp. cxxviii, 237. With Illustrations. 4to. London :
Forster, Groom & Co., Ltd. 1910. I2S. 6d.

THE mutiny of the Black Watch in 1743 had, in the editor's opinion,
no inconsiderable influence upon the Jacobite rising which we now know
as 'The '45.' The regimental records have for long been lost, and for
this reason he prints verbatim all the military records on the subject which
have been disinterred after a long search in the Public Record Office, and
other original papers as well. In the long introduction he lays great stress
on the fear expressed, by Lord President Forbes of Culloden, that if the
Black Watch were sent abroad in 1743 it would cause great dissatisfaction
in Scotland, left then without its Highland guard. He seems to think
that the regiment, having really enlisted for home service in 1739, was
thoroughly hoodwinked about the reasons why they were marched to
London, and it is certain that during this march many deserted.

Mutiny in the Black Watch 207

The order to embark for foreign service was the last straw, and part of
the regiment, which never fancied it was to serve out of its native hills,
promptly proceeded to try to march back there. The men were stopped
by a pursuing force at Lady Wood, near Oundle, and after fruitless delays
surrendered, and were taken, pinioned, to the Tower of London. A
court martial of the kind in vogue followed, and all were condemned to
death. This sentence was, however, commuted to transportation to
regiments abroad, except in the case of three of the ringleaders — two
Macphersons and a Shaw.

The Highlands were thus denuded of their native garrison, and soon
were seething with discontent ; and the Macphersons — two of whose clan
had been shot (as we have seen) as leaders of the mutiny — played a
gallant part in support of Prince Charlie in 1745-6. The book, which
has considerable value in regimental history, is dedicated to the l Brave
Highlanders ' who were * victims of deception and tyranny, nominatim,"
and to the three humane English officers connected with them.

BACON is SHAKE-SPEARE. By Sir Edwin Durning-Lawrence, Bt. Together
with a Reprint of Bacon's Promus of Formularies and Elegancies.
Pp. xiv, 286. With Illustrations. 8vo. London : Gay & Hancock,
Ltd. 1910. 2s. 6d. nett.

YET another lawyer has taken up the case of Bacon versus Shakespeare.
Sir Edwin Durning-Lawrence — we are told in a paper sent out with this
book — is a member of the bar, an LL.B., and a J.P. And here is a speci-
men of his evidence and proof: 'The mighty author of the immortal
plays was gifted with the most brilliant genius ever conferred upon man.
He possessed an intimate and accurate acquaintance, which could not have
been artificially acquired, with all the intricacies and mysteries of Court
life. He had by study obtained nearly all the learning that could be gained
from books. And he had by travel and experience acquired a knowledge
of cities and of men that has never been surpassed. Who was in existence
at that period who could by any possibility be supposed to be this universal
genius ? In the days of Queen Elizabeth, for the first time in human
history, one such man appeared, the man who is described as the marvel
and mystery of the age, and this was the man known to us under the name
of Francis Bacon.' The volume will serve as a good introduction to
Baconianism. It presents a collection of Baconian ingenuities, exhibited —
we believe — in all seriousness. If the reader has a taste for figures, let him
see how Bacon's authorship is l proved mechanically in a short chapter on
the long word Honorificabilitudinitatibus.' This, the I5ist word on the
1 36th page of the First Folio, is an obvious anagram for * Hi ludi F. Baconis
nati tuiti orbi '—which is * a correct Latin hexameter,' and means, ' These
plays, F. Bacon's offspring, are preserved for the world.' Those who do
not enjoy the Baconian ingenuities may find some interest in the illustra-
tions. What serious value the book has lies in them, and in the reprint of
Bacon's Promus^ which has been ' collated with the original MS. by the
late F. B. Bickley, and revised by F. A. Herbert of the British Museum.'

208 North-Eastern Scottish Dialect

A PHONOLOGY OF THE NORTH-EASTERN SCOTCH DIALECT ON AN
HISTORICAL BASIS. By Heinrich Mutschmann. 8vo. Pp. x, 88.
Bonn : Peter Hanstein. 1909.

A DOCTORATE thesis in the University of Bonn, this study of northern
Scottish appears as one of the Bonn studies in English philology under the
general editorship of Professor Biilbring whose student the author was.
Now holding an educational appointment in England, he bids fair to prove
a valuable auxiliary in our midst to the German wing of philological
research into British dialect. His investigation starts from the basis of the
dialect as, conjecturally, it existed about the year 1300; he claims to
have formulated for the first time a * sound-law,' that 'the regular repre-
sentative of Middle Scots au is d* : we observe that his own examples
prove a very healthy and numerous family of exceptions. He indicates
the importance of Scandinavian and Celtic influence respectively. His
observations on 'Polite Scotch' as a disintegrating factor of dialect are
shrewd, and are results of first-hand examination. The whole thesis
attests an acute and industrious application of the current German technical
method — often not over-illuminating to us home-keepers — to the analysis
of dialect. But it is difficult to rest content with a 'historical basis'
itself based on a conjecture as to what the dialect was in 1300.

LONGMANS' HISTORICAL ILLUSTRATIONS — ENGLAND IN THE MIDDLE AGES.
(Portfolio I. The xi Century ; Portfolio II. The xn Century ;
Portfolio III. The xin Century ; Portfolio IV. The xiv Century ;
Portfolio V. The xiv and xv Centuries ; Portfolio VI. The xv
Century). Drawn and described by T. C. Barfield. London :
Longmans, Green & Co. 1910. Price 2s. 6d. nett each portfolio.

A SERIES of pictorial charts of architecture, costume, and manners from
the eleventh century to the fifteenth hardly needs assurance of welcome,
when the work of delineation and description has been discriminatingly
and intelligently done. Mr. Barfield's drawings, in which early buildings
have a becoming prominence, are adequately touched with the archaeo-
logical spirit, and strive to make the past as far as possible yield an
autobiographical record. The evolution of war, the Church, and the people,
is exhibited in all the manifold and changing forms of feudal life. Ecclesi-
asticism in all its shapes, keeps, houses, armour, tournaments, sieges, ships,
heraldry, popular customs, and the beginnings of industry are all rendered
with painstaking and approximate fidelity. Had Mr. Barfield been yet more
of an archaeologist perhaps the evolution of the Norman castle from the
Motte would have given a sounder architectural centre-point. As it is, the
types of ' Norman ' castles are too advanced for the periods to which they
are assigned ; it was the fault of ' Castle Clark ' himself, and is hardly yet
rectified. But for the successive stages of general architecture and aspects of
the contemporaneous life, students, whether of a younger or an elder growth,
hardly need better, and cannot possibly have clearer guidance than is
diagrammatically afforded by these progressive pictures of English history.

England in the Middle Ages 209

If in some future edition this panorama of five centuries should assume a
format more convenient for reference its value for study would be
enhanced. As it is, however, it seems to move with the centuries across
which its track lies. Nothing can well be more notable than the increas-
ing complexity of society as exhibited in the later sheets compared with
the earlier. Fashions grow more extravagant alike in arms, costume, and
dwelling. Mr. Barfield draws without any exceptional power of line, it is
true, but with fair accuracy, a stately picture of England through the ages.
His is a gallery in which art aims at actual truth, not at an aesthetic com-
promise of fact with beauty. Not the less, however, is beauty there.

JACOBITE EXTRACTS FROM THE PARISH REGISTERS OF ST. GERMAIN-EN-
LAYE. Edited by C. E. Lart. Pp. xiv, 176. With Illustration. 8vo.
London : The St. Catherine Press, Ltd. 1910. 2is. nett.

THIS record, full of the pathos of a lost cause, is the first instalment of a
work of great interest to students of the Jacobite Period and of consider-
able value to Irish and Scottish genealogists. It gives the marriages, births,
and deaths of the little band of Jacobites who settled at St. Germain-en-
Laye (from the curiously spelled registers of which these records are
extracted) round the exiled King James and Queen Mary after 1688, and
who constituted the centre of Jacobitism until after the Queen's death.
The great majority were in some way or another connected either with
the exiled court or with the Irish Brigade, and many of the names are
associated with the offices of the former, and show in a touching way
how James II. was still treated as a king, and regarded by his following
as if he was in every way king de facto.

There was still par example an ' Ambassador from the King of England '
to Holland. We find a * chef de goblet du Roy,' who appears in these
pages, and there was an ' escuier de la bouche de la Reine.' The Queen's
chief lady of honour, who from her constant appearance in these entries
seems to have had much influence, was her old friend the Italian, Victoria
Montecuculi d'Avia Countess of Almond, but she had also another Lady,
Sophia Stuart, widow of Henry Bulkeley, of whom we should like to
know more, as she was sister of Gramont's * La belle Stuart,' but, unlike
the latter, had followed the court into exile.

The King and Queen showed their interest in their adherents by
becoming, with * the Prince of Wales ' and * serenissime Princesse Louise
Marie, Princesse d'Angleterre,' godfather and godmother to many children
born to their dependents during their exile, and many of these * born
Jacobites ' naturally perpetuated their parents' political faith, and followed
their master's 'royal' son and grandson. But, if the King and Queen showed
this interest in their Catholic court, they showed (perhaps because their suf-
ferings were purposely hidden from them) terribly little in regard to their
unfortunate Protestant subjects, who, having been equally ruined in their
cause, also followed them into France. These were exposed to the most
bitter persecutions from the French court and clergy to force them to abjure.
The editor points out that it was wonderful that more did not do so, as
they were poverty-stricken and could look to no other support except their

o

210 Jacobites at St. Germain-en-Laye

King. He tells us also that Lord Dunfermline, a Protestant whose fortune
had gone in the Stuart cause, had to be buried at night by his friends to
avoid scandal, and that Dr. Gordon, a Scottish Bishop, abjured to keep
himself from starving. The same want of consideration was shown to the
Quakers who followed the king into exile, and we find at least one
* Trembleur ' forced to own his * conversion.'

The entries in this book will fill many gaps in the difficult pedigrees of
Irish exiles of the eighteenth century, and even in the better known Scottish
family histories, and one is grateful to the editor for the learning, patience,
and care that he has bestowed on this historical bypath.

A. FRANCIS STEUART.

THE SONG OF THE STEWARTS : PRELUDE. By Douglas Ainslie. Pp. x, 202.
Demy 8vo. London : Arch. Constable & Co., Ltd. 1909. ys. 6d. nett.
A MOST interesting experiment is being tried by Mr. Douglas Ainslie, best
known, perhaps, as an interpreter of Eastern religious thought in his very
original poem John of Damascus. The experiment is no less than that of
attempting to record the history of Scotland, or at any rate of its royal
house, in metre. His * Prelude ' carries the tale from the coming of Walter,
son of Alan, to Paisley and Cathcart in the train of King David I. down
through the strife with Norway and the war of Independence to the
crusading journey of Douglas with the heart of Bruce. It is a story full of
incident of battle and chivalry, and he is a poor patriot who will not enjoy
these dashing new rimes of the old deeds, fired as they are with national
spirit so intense that the author thinks

* the Jew Iscariot
Less felon than Menteith the Scot.'

He skilfully varies the graces of divers types of measure and stanza to suit
the episode, whether it be a dirge for Wallace, a description of Bannock-
burn, or the moving narrative of the Douglas vow. One regret only the
historical critic cannot avoid — that so clever a singer of history should not
have had the good fortune to be kept abreast of the newer lights which
abound on the lives of both Wallace and Bruce. How clear a conception
of the national exploits and fortunes, however, can in a general way be
afforded by a sympathetic poet interpreting the current version of the facts
— with fresh genealogical data curiously interwoven — the readers of the
Prelude will have no manner of doubt. Nor will the dustiest critic fail
to enjoy with a new zest his country's history echoed in song.

New Facts concerning John Robinson, Pastor of the Pilgrim Fathers. By
Champlin Burrage (8vo, pp. 35. is. 6d. nett. Oxford : University
Press, 1910). A manuscript in the Bodleian has been identified by
Mr. Burrage as a tractate, probably dating from 1609, written by an
unidentified controversialist in answer to writings of Robinson. Incidentally
it contains statements not only making clear Robinson's local connection
with the Church of England in Norwich, but also indicating that his
separation from the Church was not entirely voluntary. Students of
puritanism and the Brownist position will find important data in Mr.
Burrage's extracts and inferences.

Current Literature 211

A Short History of Southampton (8vo, pp. 256. Oxford : Clarendon
Press, 1910. 2s. nett) consists of two parts, one being the general story of
Southampton by Professor Hearnshaw, the other being collective studies of
aspects of town life by various contributors, edited by Professor F. Clarke.
Southampton has rilled so large a part in English history that its annals are
often saved from dulness, and its local celebrities range from Shakespeare's
patron, the earl, to Isaac Watts, Richard Taunton (founder of a marine
school), Charles Dibdin and Sir John Millais. The port plumes itself on
the voyage of the Mayflower starting there. As a whole, the book does
credit to the public-spirited auspices under which it is produced.

The Utopia of Sir Thomas More, edited by George Sampson (8vo, pp.
xxv, 442. London : G. Bell & Sons. 55.). Few volumes of Bohn's
standard library can be more welcome to the literary antiquary than the
new edition of the Utopia. It contains Ralph Robinson's translation, first
printed in 1551 ; Roper's well-known life of More, his father-in-law; a series
of the beautiful letters chiefly to and from Margaret Roper; and the Latin
text of the Utopia, reprinted from the first edition of 1516, followed by a
very significant bibliography covering both the life of Sir Thomas and his
writings. Mr. A. Guthkelch's introduction gives in outline the few facts
needed for preface, and Mr. Sampson's footnotes to the text are unobtrusive
but requisite helps to the appreciation both of a great book and a great man.
We wish the publishers would follow this up with a reprint of More's
English writings, still buried in the inaccessible original folio of 1557.

Miss E. M. Wilmot, Buxton, has written A Junior History of Great
Britain (8vo, pp. x, 210. London : Methuen & Co.) which succinctly
sketches in anecdotal and biographical form the story of the kingdom. The
union of the Crowns in 1603 is not mentioned, the Act of Union of 1707
appears as an entirely minor episode, the Union of Great Britain and Ireland
is unrecorded, and the last chapter deals with * the progress of England.'
South English schoolmistresses should try to get more precision and a truer
perspective for the history of Great Britain.

Great Britain and Ireland. A History for Lower Forms. By John E.
Morris, D.Litt. (pp. viii, 480. Illustrated. Crown 8vo. Cambridge :
University Press. 1910. 35.). More than the < Lower Forms,' for whom
this history is intended, can read it with pleasure and profit. It is easily
written, contains quite enough without being overladen with unneces-
sary facts, and is extraordinarily well illustrated. The pictures and maps
really illuminate (unlike so many illustrated books) each period of which
the author treats.

The public libraries committee of Newcastle-upon-Tyne did well to
direct the librarian, Mr. Basil Anderton, to prepare a Catalogue of Books and
Tracts on Genealogy and Heraldry in the Central Public Libraries (410.
pp. 68. Newcastle : Doig Bros. & Co.). The classification is unfamiliar,
but the catalogue will be a service to research. This kind of antiquarian
bibliography for rapid reference merits encouragement.

212 Current Literature

The Cambridge University Press has added to their series of useful
County Geographies by issuing Lanarkshire, by Frederick Mort, M.A.
(Pp. viii, 168. is. 6d.) The volume is illustrated, and has a couple of maps.

In American history * Reconstruction ' has an important place, being the
name given to what might otherwise be called the pacification of the
Southern States. Mr. John R. Ficklen contributes to the Johns Hopkins
University Studies a stirring chapter of the story, being his History of Recon-
struction in Louisiana (Through 1868). (8vo, pp. ix, 234. Baltimore : Johns
Hopkins Press, 1910.) Starting with a sketch of conditions ante helium,
followed by a short account of the State government during the war, Mr.
Ficklen devotes much attention to General Butler's much abused adminis-
tration in New Orleans before, during, and after the actual hostilities, and,
in particular, discusses his policy of enlisting negroes on the side of the
Union, and the effects of emancipation on the liberated but demoralised
slaves. After the war negro suffrage became the great constitutional
question, leading to passionate controversy culminating in riot and bloodshed
in 1 866, and to more serious violence and the l massacre ' of many negroes
in 1868. This monograph on the course of events in a great Slave-State
is a careful record of the part played by party action and ideas influenced
by racial animosities in a time when civil war and slave emancipation had
together produced a chaos and political fury perhaps without historical
parallel.

Another of the Johns Hopkins University studies in Historical and
Political Science is The Doctrine of Non-Suability of the State in the United
States, by Karl Singewald, Ph.D. (8vo, pp. viii, 117. Baltimore: Johns
Hopkins Press). Legal tractates in this series grow in importance as
the magnitude of state interests under one administration gives so wide
a play and therefore so varied a test in lawsuits to general canons of
state-rights and liabilities. In the unceasing difficulty of reconciling
government action with private property and privilege, the immunity of
the state from being sued — a principle springing from English law — is
not determined with the nicety and distinctions required. It is subject
to large exceptions, for instance in international claims, but perhaps the
class of liabilities to which its application has been the matter of most
litigation is where not the state itself but a public officer acting on its
behalf was the subject of an injunction, or a claim of damages, or for
recovery of property. While generally the right of action against public
officers would seem to supersede the maxim of non-suability, the leading
judgments are not harmonious, and the problem is made more intricate
where a federal question, the constitutional authority, is at issue. Dr.
Singewald has grouped the American decisions and examined them with
frankness and impartiality.

Transactions of the Inverness Scientific Society and Field Club. Vol. VI.
1899 to 1906. (Demy 8vo, pp. vi, 377. With Illustrations. Inverness :
Courier Office. 1910.) Seven years' local study is garnered into this
volume under the editorship of Mr. James Barren, and upwards of twenty

Current Literature 213

contributions out of five and fifty are historical and antiquarian. Dr. W. J.
Watson, writing on the Celtic Church in Ross, deals with the lives of
Saints Maelruba and Duthus. The Rev. G. A. Breguet traces the early
history of Tain, touching on the privilege of sanctuary and transcribing
documents and charters on the burghal liberties. Cromwell's Fort at
Inverness is well described and illustrated with plans by Mr. James
Fraser. Citations from seventeenth century accounts of it must interest
any one who has seen the extant remains. Various tribute is paid to
Hugh Miller in view of his centenary in 1902. A composite note on the
field of Culloden accompanies a reproduction of the sketch plan of the
battle made by Colonel Yorke, the Duke of Cumberland's aide-de-camp.
A short notice of Kinloss Abbey is given by Rev. G. S. Peebles, minister
of the parish. The editor himself contributes two good holiday articles,
one on Gaul in Caesar's time, and the other descriptive of a visit to Alesia
(now Mount Auxois, 38 miles north-west of Dijon), with plans showing
the terrain and the lines of Caesar's circumvallation during the siege. This
publication manifests a healthy spirit of history in the community of
Inverness, and should stimulate local work.

Transactions of the Buteshire Natural History Society. Vol. II. 1 909- 1910.
(8vo, pp. 89. Rothesay : Chronicle Office. 1910. 2s. 6d.) Amid the
meteorology and zoology of these proceedings there appear three historical
papers : on Prehistory of Bute, by Professor Bryce, M.D. ; on the Town
Council of Rothesay from 1654 until 1833, by Mr. R. D. Whyte ; and
on Rothesay in the Seventeenth Century, by Mr. A. D. Macbeth. Pro-
fessor Bryce describes and classifies the early cairns and cists and their
remains. Mr. Whyte tells his story by extracts from the old minute
books, and is chiefly concerned to trace modes of election. Mr. Macbeth
brings an important contribution to burghal study by the use he has made
of 'the old rentall buiks of the lands' within the burgh to show the rather
puzzling distinctions of 'said lands, both heretage, commoun and king's
landis.' It is the last category that gives difficulty, for evidently these
* king's lands ' were, like the others, become private property. Many old
place-names are set forth, as well as old surnames of occupants. A letter
of Professor Maitland is appended. Some day we hope Mr. Macbeth will
return to the subject of these peculiar land-tenures, and make a trial-plan
of old Rothesay on the lines of that done for Glasgow in Mr. Renwick's
Glasgow Protocols.

We have on a former occasion noticed Miss Griffin's Bibliography of
books and articles on the United States and Canadian History. A
further volume containing writings published during the year 1908 has
just been issued. The volume implies much careful research, and should
be of interest to librarians.

The Viking Club's serial publications are so many that they almost call
for a catalogue quarterly. The Old Lore Miscellany (October) prints the
closing part of a contribution, Grottasongr, edited and annotated by
E. Magnusson. It was wisely thought worth separate issue — Grottasongr,

214 Current Literature

edited and translated by Eirfkr Magniisson. (Pp. 39. Coventry : Curtis
& Beamish, 1910. Price is. 6d. nett.) There are two pages of facsimile
from the fourteenth century MS. of this Song of the £htern Grotte — the quern
of northern mythology through whose potent grinding the sea became salt.
It is a poem of many enigmas which the editor's learning makes much less
dark. Most helpful notes of all are the four prose passages prefixed, giving
the leading versions of the strange Norse legend.

The Club's Tear Book (Vol. II., 1909-10) has reports summarizing the
year's studies and discoveries in matters Norse, besides a series of notes
and reviews having a somewhat similar view. A band of keen workers
is clearly going forward with great spirit in their task.

The Berks, Bucks, and Oxon Archaeological Journal never fails in richness
of antiquarian matter on churches. The July number reproduces three
brasses — a bearded civilian, John of Walden ; a canon of Hertford or
Hereford named Thomas of Busshbury ; and a bachelor utriusque juris,
William Skelton, provost in the cathedral church of Wells. In the
October number transcripts are given from Oxfordshire parish registers.
The rector of Hanborough, Dr. Peter Mews, in 1667, 'did uterly renounce
the Solemne Leage and Convent' (sic). In 1570 a stranger and peregrinus
dying by the wayside in Spelsbury was buried * super montem nuncupatum
Leedownes ex certis legittimis causis.'

The Rutland Magazine for July and October has many fine eighteenth
century portraits of the Edwards family, whose estates passed to the Noels
in 1811. Interest of another kind attaches to extracts made by the editor,
Mr. G. Phillips, from quarter sessions records. A warrant and pass for an
Irish vagrant in 1 769 is included, to send him on from Rutland to Lanca-
shire, and put him on board ' any ship or vessel bound for the said kingdom
of Ireland,' and convey him thither.

Among the contents of the Notes and Queries for Somerset and Dorset
(September), besides the many law papers and charters which are always so
gratifying a feature of this magazine, there is a note on the Somersetshire
* dolemoors,' or pieces of common land divided into separate acres, each marked
by a horn, pole-axe, dung-fork or the like cut in the turf under curious local
folk-regulations. There is a capital portrait of Colonel Giles Strangways
(1615-75), a royalist soldier whose ill luck was less notable than his
loyalty. Excavations at Glastonbury Abbey receive descriptive attention.

Scotia always interests in its selection of pictures illustrative of Scottish
landscape and life. Warm-hearted tribute is paid to Professor Blackie in
the Lammas issue. The Martinmas number extols the work of William
Burns (1809-1876), historian of the War of Independence.

The Modern Language Review (October) has an article by Mr. Wright
Roberts showing the debt of Chateaubriand to Milton. Messrs. E. K.
Chambers and F. Sidgwick edit part of a collection of fifteenth century
carols by John Audelay, circa 1426. He is called 'Jon the blynde
Awdlay ' in one place of the MS. (Douce 302), and in another is described

Current Literature 215

as a chaplain ' quifuit secus et surdus.' One of the twelve carols now printed
is de rege henrico sexto.

The Home Counties Magazine for June is a bright number, rich in
pictures of open-air statues in London, and has articles on Judge Jeffreys,
on the Friar-confessors of English kings (rather too discursive and indirect,
but gossipy), and on the current pageants in English home-counties.

In its September issue are papers on Poplar Chapel, early churches of
South Essex, and the history of Enfield. A continued paper on the open-
air statues in London is, with its many pictures of these historical memorials,
a revelation of the contribution made by sculpture to what is a surprisingly
full record of public, political, and literary life in the metropolis, from
Sir Richard Whittington's time till our own.

In the July issue of the American Historical Review, the root-question of
the philosophy of history is treated in Mr. F. J. Teggart's article on l The
Circumstance or the Substance of History,' contrasting the conception of
history as narrative of mere fact with the higher generalisation sometimes
called evolution. Mr. Teggart's sympathies are not with the chronicler
laying an undue emphasis upon * events ' and preoccupied in recording the
vicissitudes of authorities. Perhaps he himself gives scarcely enough recog-
nition to the fact that these are the foundations, though he might answer
that architecture only begins there. But to call inferences substance, and
actual facts only circumstances, is a challenge full of hazard.

Mr. L. M. Larson opens a new and important furrow and attempts to
raise from the Charters of Cnut the material for inferences regarding
changes of policy during various periods. In the first four years of his
reign, 1016-20, he was establishing himself firmly in the throne. From
1 020, after his return from Denmark, he began to utilise the services of
Englishmen and to make for a unification of the peoples. At this time he
started his long series of benefactions to English ecclesiastics. In the last
years, 1030-35, the vigour of his sovereignty seemed to have exhausted itself.

Mr. James F. Baldwin completes his weighty study of the King's
Council and the Chancery and their special phases of equity jurisdiction as
they became gradually differentiated. They were essentially summary
courts much used for cases of riot and violence, and largely resorted to in
civil causes for appeals against the delays, or in respect of defect of juris-
diction of the common law. Mr. Baldwin, who has gone deeply into the
whole subject, shows that the multitude of documents surviving must con-
tain a great mass of historical matter, although mostly of subordinate value
and difficult to verify.

In the October issue of the same Review, Professor Beazley makes
an interesting commentary on the Crusade aspect of the expeditions from
1415 until 1459, along the coast of Africa, carried out by Prince Henry
the Navigator, Infante of Portugal. Contemporary citations show the
crusading side of these enterprises with a degree of emphasis lost in later
history, which was more concerned with discovery and conquest than with
the pious purpose which gave inspiration, or at any rate countenance to the

216 Current Literature

movement. That it was truly inspiration the chroniclers as well as the
papal bulls patently show, and Professor Beazley strikes a telling note when
he concludes by pointing out how fully the Portuguese in this as in other
respects anticipated Columbus. ' To him the idea of crusade is part of his
very life.'

Mr. Ralph Catterall tests the credibility of Marat and finds his veracity,
in the matter of his own biography, so badly suspect as to make his un-
supported statement quite untrustworthy. The chief test worked out is an
examination of his narrative about the publication of his pamphlet, The
Chains of Slavery ', which was issued at London in 1774, but according to
him was suppressed by Lord North until a new edition was brought out by
a patriotic society at Newcastle. This tale of suppression Mr. Catterall
maintains is false, and the Newcastle edition he believes to be only a re-issue
in 1775 of the unsaleable copies of the London book, with a new title page.
But the case against Marat needs more direct proofs than Mr. Catterall has
yet brought forward.

An important series of historical documents is printed in this number,
being the letters passing between Toussaint Louverture, President John
Adams and Edward Stevens, in 1798-1800. Stevens was consul-general
in St. Domingo, and his reports to the U.S. Government on his intercourse
with the negro insurgent leader give a very intimate narrative of events, as
well as a capable estimate of the policy and designs of Toussaint, first as
merelyi general of the colonial army, and ultimately as invested by the
inhabitants of the colony with supreme power, civil and military.

In the Iowa Journal (October) a long report is given of a conference
held in May last of local historical societies of Iowa. Each of fourteen
county historical societies was represented by a delegate who described its
work and condition. From the disappointing accounts these delegates
gave, it is severely clear that the fourteen societies of Iowa have not yet
won their spurs in the field of history.

In the Queen's Quarterly (Jul.-Sept.), published by Queen's University,
Kingston, Canada, the only historical contribution is Professor J. L.
Morison's Political Estimate of Lord Sydenham, whose tactful and high-
principled governor-generalship of two years, 1839-41, is sympathetically
described as constituting him a true maker of the Dominion.

The Revue d'Histoire Ecclesiastique (October) has one continued article
on the apocryphal Acts of Peter and the conclusion of another on the
mystico-political ideas of a Franciscan, being a study of the Arbor Vitae of
Ubertin de Casale. It has also the end of a sketch of the origins and
development of the apostolic Secretaryship of State from 1417 till 1823.
To the time of Innocent XII. (1691-1700) is ascribed the overthrow of
nepotism and a consequent unity of direction to papal policy thenceforward.
As usual this number, besides a weighty section of book reviews, is furnished
with an appendix of bibliography (pp. 162) specialised into sections such as
the publications and criticisms of sources, the history of divine service and
discipline, and local and corporate records.

Current Literature 217

Bulletins de la Soci/te des Antiquaires de I1 Quest. Troisieme serie. Tome
I. ( Jul.-Sept.). Poitiers, 1909. The principal paper in this part is a short
account of the building used as the Town Council-hall of Poitiers from
1740 until 1791, now used as the library of the Society. References to
armorial bearings formerly in the hall, and to others sculptured under the
windows of the adjoining chapel, but apparently all defaced in 1791, are of
great interest, and tend not a little to pique curiosity as to the history of
the building, part of which appears to be assigned to the years 1459-60.

We take the opportunity of asking whether some member cannot explain
the remarkable reference made in Wyntoun's Chronicle (Book ix. chap. vii.
lines 859-60 of Mr. Amours' edition for the Scottish Text Society) to the
great hall of Poitiers :

And Schir Thomas of Erskine was

Woundit thar felly in the face

He may weill, syne1 the weme2 apperis

Eit in the great hall of Poyteris.

We should welcome a communication from any archaeologist of Poitiers on
the subject.

In the Revue Historique (Sept.-Oct. ; Nov.-Dec.) special studies deal
with Russia and the Italian policy of Napoleon III. ; the advice of Villeroy
to the Regent Marie de Medicis on the Mantuan succession in 1613 ; and.
the letters (curious and far from affectionate) between Louis XIII. and
Marie de Medicis, his mother, in 1619.

A strike of labourers in 1786 at Paris is well described, with its
attendant features of 'tumultuous and scandalous assemblies' in the
streets, when shopkeepers were insulted by songs sung in derision of them
before their doors. In 1785 a sort of parcel post had been instituted with
red vans drawn by men. The gagne-deniers protested against this as an
infringement of their privileges and struck work — a course of action in
which they were backed by a good deal of public sympathy. Disturbances
broke out, and the police had to drive off the strikers with fixed bayonets.
Full of their grievances, a body of 800 men set out to march to Versailles
in order to petition the king. He was hunting, and this — prophetic —
deputation failed. A few of the men were punished by being paraded and
put in the carcan with labels, '•Violent et rebelle envers la garde J and by
fines. The strike achieved nothing, and the little red vehicles continued
to run for a time. One important fact, however, which M. Marcel
Rouff deduces from the matter is that the incident demonstrated the
unanimity of public opinion against the government. 'It was,' he says,
'one of those movements in which the people tried their strength, and
it was the prelude to acts better organized and directed.'

In those two numbers of the Revue appears a long article by M. Henri
Cavailles on a sort of federation existing in the valleys of the Pyrenees
under the old regime, constituted by agreements of ancient standing
between the dalesmen, on both the French and Spanish sides of the
mountains. These were called lies and passeries, and were treaties of

1 syne, since, as. z weme, scar.

2i 8 A Prelude of the Revolution

alliance and peace. Passerie (patzaria, patzeria, carta de la patz] seems
to be a diminutive of pax. Pierre de Marca gives it the form of passerine.
Originating long before the Pyrenees were the frontier line of two great
kingdoms, these codes are found reduced to precise terms and articles from
the twelfth century, although the oldest extant agreements between the
opposite sides of the mountains belongs to the early fourteenth century.
For a long time the valleys preserved a semi-independence, but in 1258
the Pyrenees became the boundary between France and Aragon, and
the gradual consolidation of one royal authority north of the mountains
and of another one south of them led to slow changes, culminating in
the seventeenth century, when the old system broke up and the inter-valley
treaties gave way to an administration now exercised by the Commission des
Pyr/n/es.

Rights of pasturage and the like on the scattered plateaux and sheltered
shoulders of the mountains — remote as well from the French as from
the Spanish townships in the valleys below — had grown up through the
course of centuries into definite and stable understandings and agreements.
These regulated a whole series of usages for the exercise of common
pasture and privilege, determined by the geographical position and by
the contrast of climate between the opposite mountain slopes. The
Spanish side is quickly parched in summer ; on the French side there
is more sheltering shade. Spanish flocks had right of feeding in certain
months on the French soil and vice versa. Marketing arrangements were
similarly international — if we may use that term to include the period
before the kingdoms were defined. Salt was one of the indispensable
commodities, and there are still shown, high up on the very frontier
line, recesses cut in the rocks wherein of old the salt was measured.
Naturally the systems of rights varied greatly : each valley had its treaty
only with the two or three which marched with it; the codes were of
origin so distant that tradition and legend gathered round them. Chief
interest to a Scottish student must be in the many points of parallel those
frontier codes, traditions, and legends present to the story of the Leges
Marchiarum, the border code between England and Scotland.

Thus there are memories of the duel and sanctuary, of boundary crosses
and debatable land (milieu contentieux\ of annual payments of cattle, of
fixed schemes of compensation, of usages of truce in warfare, and of
regular commercial conventions — all bringing the Pyrenean law of the
mountain into line with our law of the marches. So strong was
the principle these local treaties of peace expressed that notwithstanding
the consolidation of the nations and kingdoms, the valleys were at peace
with one another in spite of the kingdoms being at war. The kings
reserved their rights, but as these mountain fastnesses were no fit theatre
for campaigns the mountain law was allowed, and peace had a refuge in
the hills. This little imperium in imperio had as its centre the mechanism
for adjusting disputes between the inhabitants of the valleys, and specially
for- determining the amends for cattle-lifting and other depredations
inevitable under the conditions of their rustic life. Sometimes the award
was levied on the village, but usually the liability was individual.

Border Codes on the Pyrenees 219

As on the English and Scottish border, deputies met at fixed times
and at places determined by tradition or treaty to hear and decide upon
claims. Just as our border customs included a dignified ceremonial
when the Wardens of the Marches met at a Day of Truce or a March
Day — the etiquette prescribing who was to salute and how the companies
were to greet each other — so the seventeenth century historian of B£arn,
following old Spanish authority, describes its Pyrenean analogue. At a
spot on the frontier marked by a great stone a fathom and half high,
the jurats of Roncal used to meet the jurats of Bar6tous. They stood
facing each other across the march line, neither party saluting. The
men of Roncal asked if they of Baretous would swear to the accustomed
peace. This agreed to on both sides, the Roncalois laid their pike on
the ground along the boundary line, and the Bearnois laid theirs across,
making Beam, as it were, the head of the cross. By this cross both sides
knelt and swore to the wonted pactions. Five times over they cried
aloud, Paz abant (peace henceforward) ; then they rose and greeted
each other ; and 30 men of Baretous drove over the line the three
choice and spotless cows which were the traditional tribute due to the
Roncalois. Then the Roncalois entertained the others to bread, meat,
and wine, after which the proceedings resolved themselves into a public
market.

These curious proceedings were the implement of a treaty made in
1375 after long and constant quarrels between the men of B£arn and
their Navarrese neighbours across the mountain. The former were con-
ceded the right of pasture on the Spanish side of the frontier, and the
three two-year-old cows were a sort of rent. A law of trespass was
stringently enforced by a custom of poinding or impounding called the
law of carnal or carnau, evidently implying an original right to kill and
eat the animals found on forbidden territory. It was in 1646 suppressed
and a fixed compensation in money substituted. The learned exponent
of these frontier practices sees in the entire system unfailing indications
that the passeries in their essence presuppose a state of warfare, and his
numerous citations show that the border meetings on the Pyrenean slopes,
like ours on the Tweed and the Solway, were in fact as well as in name
days of truce. Much archaism is visible in these frontier usages of the
mountaineers which were well worthy of the fine exposition M. Cavailles
has written.

Communications and Replies

'FURTHER ESSAYS ON BORDER BALLADS' (S.H.R. viii.
1 08). Mr. Lang writes, with reference to 'Auld Maitland,' that certain
letters entirely clear Sir Walter Scott ' from the charge of having been art
and part with Hogg in palming off a modern imitation on the world, while
representing it to Ellis and Ritson as a genuine antique. Such conduct
would have been highly dishonourable.' This sentence is ambiguous ; it
may mean that to pass off an imitation on the world — and that was my
charge — is dishonourable, to which the reply is Sir Walter did not think
so. It may mean that to include friends in such a deception is dishonour-
able— that to deceive a friend is more objectionable than to confide in him
and force him to choose between betraying and screening you. Unless
Scott can be claimed as favouring this view, Mr. Lang's argument falls to
the ground. Again, too much value may be attached to letters as evidence ;
thus, hasty judges might have pronounced some of Scott's letters to be
clear proof that he was not the author of * Waverley.' Are we not too
serious ? Is there not something humorous in everything relating to this
1 genuine antique ' ?

As to ' Otterburn,' Mr. Lang says he has shown * how Scott edited it,
what he excised, and what he took from ' other copies. This does not
weaken my argument that the ballad is not genuine, and it strengthens
my contention that it was not obtained in the manner related in the
Minstrelsy. Sir George Douglas rightly says ' the " aged persons " who
" lived at the head of Ettrick Forest," and stored ballads in their retentive
memories, have had their day ' (S.H.R. vii. 419).

For his views on ' Kinmont Willie ' and ' Jamie Telfer,' Mr. Lang relies
' faute de mieux ' — an expression implying a knowledge of weak founda-
tions— * on ballad lore ' — I know of none relating specially to either ballad
— ' on logic,' — so also do I, though it has somewhere been referred to as
' that wonderful one-boss shay ' — ' and on literary criticism.' I am glad to
remember that Mr. Lang has referred to my literary criticism of 'Jamie
Telfer ' in terms of high approbation (S.H.R. iv. 87).

FITZWILLIAM ELLIOT.

My little book, Sir Walter Scott and the Border Minstrelsy, contains all
that I have to say in reply to Colonel FitzWilliam Elliot's letter. My
proof of Scott's entire innocence of forging Auld Maitland and of telling
falsehoods about that ballad reposes on facts, which I give, and on ascer-
tained dates.

220

Further Essays on Border Ballads 221

As to Otterbourne, I give every detail of Scott's making of the text
published by him ; his proceedings were those which he professedly
employed when he had before him incomplete variants in MS. or even
complete variants.

As regards Jamie Telfer and Kinmont Willie, as there is almost no
external evidence, I do as Colonel Elliot does ; I criticise the ballads as
we possess them, commenting on some features unnoticed by Colonel
Elliot. He says that of ' ballad lore ' he * knows none relating to either
ballad.' That is his misfortune, not my fault ! I am able to give
references to the appearance, in other old ballads, of most of a verse
which we read in Scott's, but not in Sharpe's, version of Jamie Telfer.
The stanza, in Jamie Telfer, is meaningless ; wherefore I presume that it
was not inserted by Scott. It is rather curious, though unimportant, that
in a chapter-heading of The Black Dwarf Scott gives a variant version of
a stanza of Jamie Telfer. Mr. W. J. Kennedy also points out to me that
in a book called Feats on the Border, of about 1830, there occurs an other-
wise unknown stanza of Kinmont Willie.

To Mr. Kennedy I also owe complete proof, from a MS. of Laidlaw's,
that Leyden did not know Hogg till the day after that on which Laidlaw
gave to Scott, in Leyden's presence, Hogg's holograph MS. of Auld
Maitland. This is important, because, on Colonel Elliot's theory, Hogg
and Leyden must have known each other ; and from Leyden Hogg might
have got his knowledge of 'Auld Maitland and his bairnis three.' The
theory is ingenious, but baseless.

As I prove, in my book, that Scott deceived nobody in regard to Auld
Maitland, I might be dispensed from remarking on an example of Colonel
Elliot's logic, but it invites comment. As a matter of fact, Scott received
from Laidlaw, in the spring vacation of 1802, the MS. of Auld Maitland
which Hogg had sent to Laidlaw. In the same spring Scott sent this same
holograph MS. to Joseph Ritson, with an account of its provenance, which
was entirely true. Had Scott lied in his account, I have my own opinion
as to the ethical nature of his conduct : it would be * highly dishonourable.'
Colonel Elliot says that I may * mean that to include friends in such a
deception is dishonourable — that to deceive a friend is more objectionable
than to confide in him and force him to choose between betraying and
screening you.' Manet sors tertia : you need say nothing about the
matter to your friend, to Ritson or Ellis. I hope never to return to these
'antiquarian old womanries' again, but if any one can disprove the facts
and dates on which I rely in the matter of Auld Maitland, I will * burn
my faggot ' with due publicity.

A. LANG.

The editor has sent Mr. Lang's note to Colonel Fitzwilliam Elliot who
writes : ' Mr. Lang's " ballad lore " is now limited to appearances, in old
ballads, of part of a verse in Scott's version of "Jamie Telfer." How this
bears upon the genuineness of the older versions — and that is the whole of
my point — it is impossible to understand.'

Colonel Fitzwilliam Elliot also adds, that 'regarding Auld Maitland

222 Further Essays on Border Ballads

Mr. Lang is incorrect in saying that my theory depends upon when Hogg
and Leyden first became acquainted.'

The editor would call attention to the paper on Border Ballads by
Professor W. Paton Ker on page 190 of this number of the Scottish
Historical Review.

EARLY CHARTER AT INVERARAY.— The following charter,
found last year by me at Inveraray, in the Argyll charter chest, into which
it seems to have strayed in some manner, is the earliest writ now extant
in that charter room, and I suppose the lands named are in Fife. Two
earls of Fife bore the name of Malcolm, the former holding the earldom
from 1203 to 1228 and the latter from 1228 to 1266, and it is probably to
the latter that this writ should be assigned. Alexander of Blar, a witness
herein, had himself a charter of the lands of Thases, Kinteases, and Ballen-
durich for service of one knight from Earl Malcolm of Fife, to which
William of Wiuille, Walter and Gregory, chaplains, are all witnesses.
(Vide Fourth Report Hist. MSS. Com.^ p. 503, penes Earl of Zetland,
formerly penes Earl of Rothes.)

'Comes Malcolmus de fif omnibus amicis suis et hominibus salutem
Sciant presentes et futuri me dedisse et concessisse et hac mea carta
confirmasse Ricardo filio Andree de Lintune meas tres tarvez per rectas
divisas suas cum omnibus justis pertinentiis suis et Findakech et medietatem
de Balebranin per rectas divisas suas et cum omnibus ipsius pertinentiis
quibuscunque. In bosco et piano in pratis et pascuis In moris et
maresiis In stagnis et molendinis et In omnibus aliis aisiamentis eisdem
terris predictis pertinentibus. Tenend sibi et heredibus suis de me et
heredibus meis in feudo et hereditate, adeo libere et quiete plenarie et
honorifice sicut aliquis miles in regno scocie feudum suum de comite ut
barone liberius quiecius plenius et honorificentius tenet et possidet faciendo
servicium unius militis in Testibus Alexandro et Willelmo de Blar,Willelmo
de Wyvilla, Elia filio odonis, Willelmo filio Alexandri, Waltero et
gregorio capellanis. Stephano de Blar, Gregorio filio Walteri de Ecclis,
Rogero de berkelay, Willelmo clerico cum nonnullis(?) aliis.'

A very fine and perfect seal in green wax remains appended on a cord
of interwoven black and brown thread, bearing the equestrian figure of
an armed knight apparently crowned with flowing surcoat, sword in hand
and shield on breast. Legend, SIGILLUM MALCOLMI COMITIS DE FIF.
Reverse, a small shield (obliterated) ; legend, SECRET COMIS M • DE • FIF.
Dimensions of charter, 8-| inches by 4 inches plus I inch folded over.

Dorso is written, * Charter be Malcolm Earle of Fife to Richard sone
to Andrew of Linton of the lands of Tarbet without date,' and another
hand has written * 1217-1266.'

I have expanded the numerous contractions in the above transcript.

NIALL D. CAMPBELL.

The Coronation Stone of Scotland 223

LETTERS FROM FRANCIS KENNEDY RELATIVE TO
THE SIEGE OF EDINBURGH, 1745. The Editor has to thank
Mr. John Morrison for pointing out that the letter from Mr. Francis
Kennedy (S.H.R, viii. 54), which is dated 8th September, 1745, should
have been dated 8th October, 1745 ; this letter, instead of being the first of
the series, should, therefore, have been the third. The Editor regrets that
this error in dating on Mr. Francis Kennedy's part was not noticed earlier.
The occupation of Edinburgh by the Jacobites only began on I7th Sep-
tember, and internal evidence also goes to show that this letter should have
followed that of 5th October.

THE CORONATION STONE OF SCOTLAND. How great
a hold on Scottish and English history, and on English as well as
Scottish imagination, the 'stone of Scone' possesses is well shown by Mr.
George Watson's paper in the transactions of the Scottish Ecclesiological
Society on ' The Coronation Stone of Scotland,' of which he has sent us an
offprint. It is an excellent statement of the whole story, supplementing at
many points W. F. Skene's classic essay on the subject. It traces anew
the pedigree and adventures of this famous stone and the literature of
romance, prophecy, record and chronicle which time, ever prone to broider
fact with legend, has evoked.

Geology is said to favour a native Scots origin, as authorities forty years
ago agreed that the stone was of west-coast Scottish sandstone. This dis-
credited the legend of an Egyptian source and a journey westward inter-
rupted by a sojourn of 2000 years or so in Spain prior to its being set up in
Ireland for an age or two, before its conveyance across the Channel to Lorn
and Scone. The legend appears at least as early as 1301, then simply
bearing that Pharaoh's daughter sailed to Ireland and thence to Scotland
carrying the stone with her.

That long before this it was invested by tradition with high national
sanctions appears sufficiently from Hemingburgh's description of John
Balliol's coronation in 1292, when in accordance with the ancient ceremony
the king was set in the ' huge stone ' beside the great altar of the monastery-
church of Scone. On Balliol's overthrow in 1296 Edward I. carried off
the stone to Westminster whence, in spite of negotiation and direct under-
taking by treaty to return it, it never returned.

Mr. Watson has faithfully assembled the medieval historical references to
it, but we suspect there must be many even of the early period and still
more since the Union which would increase the value of the collection.
It strikes a Scotsman as very curious that such a work as Mr. Wickham
Legg's English Coronation Records should be indefinite and devoid of
information about the ' Stone of Destiny ' ; and that among all the profusion
of liturgical writings on the ceremonial of the coronation, with its more than
ample store of petty rubrics about faldstools, imperial mantles and holy oil,
the ingenuity of court ceremonialists from the time of Charles I. till that of
Victoria should never have found room in the ' Coronation Orders ' for the
fact that the stone is a great historic part of the function. ' King Edward's
Chair' is no doubt a fit enough memory of St. Edward. It is meet that

224 The Coronation Stone of Scotland

English traditions should live even in rubric, but why should not the 'stone
of Scotland ' be specifically countenanced in the liturgy of the day ?

Mr. Watson's numerous, and often odd, citations do not seem to include
one from a chronicle noticed by Leland (Collectanea, \. 189) where, follow-
ing an account of the coronation of Henry IV. there is mention of the
Lapis regalls Scotia. We observe with pleasure that he adds to the stock
of known allusions a passage from a Bodleian manuscript attributing to
Moses the prediction about the ' fatal ' stone that

qui ceste piere avera
De molt estraunge terre conquerour serra.

This form of the prophecy is a little more general than the well-known
standard couplet,

Ni fallat fatum Scoti quocunque
Inveniunt lapidem regnare tenentur ibidem.

[' The Scottis sail brook that realme as native ground,
gif weirdes faill not, q'ever this chyre is found.'

But the broader prophecy has had perhaps the more triumphant vindication.

The

Scottish Historical Review

VOL. VIIL, No. 31 APRIL 1911

The Beginnings of St. Andrews University

1410-1418.

I

nnHE cathedral town of St. Andrews became the home of the
JL first Scottish University in 1410. St. Andrews was then,
and has ever remained, an ideal place for a seat of learning. The
town had been growing steadily for centuries, under the fostering
care of a long succession of bishops ; but its geographical position
was an effectual barrier to its becoming the centre of a great
population. In this respect time has wrought but little change.
St. Andrews, although in touch with all the world, is still far
from being one of the busy haunts of men. The two ' seas '
which were once complained of as being to its disadvantage have
now been bridged, but men and things are only the more swiftly
carried past its doors. The gray old town remains standing
isolated and remote. It is true that it increases in area and in
the number of its inhabitants with the years, but its growth
continued, until quite lately, to be relatively slow.

In plan and general outline St. Andrews has not altered much
since the natal year of its University. The twentieth century
finds it stretching itself towards the south and west, and covering
its suburbs with villas and gardens. The fifteenth century found
it confining itself within narrower limits, as if for greater warmth
and safety, and with nearly all its principal buildings clinging close
to the north and east. A large part of the ground now built

S.H.R. VOL. VIII, J>

226 J. Maitland Anderson

upon was then, and for centuries afterwards, ploughed land
and pasturage. The billows had forbidden the encircling of the
legendary shrine of St. Regulus with human dwellings, and so the
cliffs above and beyond his sea-girt cave became crowned with
piles of masonry. On the one side, towards the south-east, stood
what had been a Culdee church and monastery, otherwise known as
the Church of St. Mary of the Rock, and at one time a Chapel
Royal. Not far off stood the church dedicated to St. Regulus
himself, with its time-defying tower, which still looks down upon
the ruins of once massive buildings greatly younger than itself.
Close by were the extensive buildings and grounds of the Augus-
tinian Priory, founded in 1144, witn its magnificent cathedral
church, begun about 1160 but not consecrated until 1318. On
the other side, towards the north, the Castle or Palace of the
Bishops, dating from about 1200, rose sheer from the water's
edge. Nearer still, a few yards to the south, there was, it is
believed, a chapel dedicated to St. Peter; while close by the
cathedral stood the earliest parish church.

This group of ecclesiastical buildings crowned a rocky promon-
tory— anciently known as Mucross — and looked straight out
upon the cold North Sea. They formed the nucleus of a town
which sprang up and prospered under their shadow. This nucleus
at first bore the Celtic name of Kilrimont, but long before it had
attained to any size the town had come to be known as
St. Andrews. Hemmed in between a rivulet and the sea, it took
shape accordingly. From near the main entrance to the cathedral
three long, and for the most part spacious, streets extended in a
westerly direction. These streets ran nearly parallel, except that
they converged upon the cathedral, and their outer ends ter-
minated in ports or gateways. They were known respectively as
the Northgate, the Marketgate, and the Southgate, and here and
there were joined by narrow lanes bearing even homelier names.
Along the cliffs, between the Kirkhill and the Links, and passing
the entrance to the castle, there ran a roadway, rather than a
street, inasmuch as it was lined on either side by crofts instead of
houses. This was known as the Castlegate, afterwards as the
Swallowgate, and later still as the Scores.

The Southgate was the principal street — the 'via regia.' It
was longer than the two other streets, and its east end was for
many generations the fashionable quarter of the town. Here
were to be found the lofty and substantial houses of churchmen,
of the aristocracy, and of the wealthier merchant burgesses.

St. Andrews University 227

Elsewhere were the booths and dwellings of the craftsmen and
traders, and the homesteads of the land-labourers, or crofters,
who farmed the Priory acres. A few sailors and fishermen had
settled near the castle ; bakers, maltsters, and brewers were plenti-
ful ; but no single industry was engaged in on an extensive scale.
Merchandise came and went for the most part by sea — the
estuary of the Eden, four miles away, being the recognised port
at which the petty customs of the burgh were levied. With the
exception of the Dominican or Black-Friars' Monastery in the
Southgate, no ecclesiastical building of any importance had as
yet been erected in any of the streets or lanes; but the trans-
ference of the Parish Church of the Holy Trinity to the centre
of the town followed immediately upon the founding of the
University. The existence of * Temple Tenements ' in all three
streets indicates the presence of the knights of St. John of Jerusa-
lem ; and there are charter references to c inns ' and other houses
of considerable size, as well as to chapels, both in the Southgate
and the Northgate.

There would also be municipal buildings of some sort, probably
in the Marketgate, for St. Andrews had been a royal burgh since
the time of King David II., and had a line of provosts going back
to about 1 135. But even in the fifteenth century its actual ruler
was the bishop, and under him the prior and the archdeacon. The
town laid claim to a saintly origin, and the whole atmosphere
of the place was still essentially ecclesiastical. Churchmen of all
grades were constantly to be seen on its streets. They were the
only men who could pretend to possess even a little education,
and so all posts of influence and emolument fell to their lot.
Apart from supplying the daily needs of the community, there
was little scope for trade or commerce. It was as the ecclesiastical
capital of Scotland that St. Andrews flourished. Its resident
clergy were numerous and influential, and there was a constant
coming and going of dignitaries both of church and state.
Being the seat of the principal official of the diocese, much legal
business fell to be transacted within its walls.

Such learning as Scotland possessed from the twelfth to the
fifteenth century was well represented at St. Andrews. Not a
few of its bishops were men of refinement and intellectual
culture, to whom the sons of kings and nobles were entrusted
for their early training. Even before the foundation of the
Priory and the building of the Cathedral, St. Andrews had
become known as a centre of education. Thus, as early as 1 1 20,

228 J. Maitland Anderson

Eadmer, on his election to the bishopric, was welcomed by the
scholars and people of St. Andrews.1 About a century later,
between 1211 and 1216, a dispute arose between the Prior and
the * Master of the schools of the city of St. Andrews and the
poor scholars of the said city * regarding certain endowments per-
taining to the schools — a dispute which was amicably settled under
a reference to Pope Innocent III.2 Again, the Exchequer Rolls
of Scotland show that in 1384 and also in 1386, payments were
made on behalf of James Stewart, son of King Robert II., and
Gilbert of Hay, son of Thomas of Hay, who were then studying
at St. Andrews — the one ' stante in studio apud Sanctum Andream,'
the other ' existente in scolis ibidem.' 3 These schools were
doubtless in some way connected with the Church ; and, although
nothing definite is known regarding the educational arrangements
of the Priory, it is reasonable to assume that they included a
training school for novices, and probably for others. So late
indeed as January 18, 1467, reference is made in the University
records to a grammar school (schola grammaticalis) within the
monastery, which the Faculty of Arts was anxious to suppress.*
Martine, writing in 1683, asserts that 'upon the west of the
[Cathedral] Church there stood a Lycaeum, where the famous
Scotus his quodlibets were taught.'6 Of this building nothing
now is known, except that massive foundations still exist upon
its reputed site.

It is therefore not surprising that the closing year of the first
decade of the fifteenth century witnessed the commencement of a
Studium Generale in St. Andrews. The wonder rather is that this
important event should have been deferred so long.6 Two causes
may be assigned for the foundation of a Scottish University at
this particular period. The one is the strained relations that had
for some time prevailed between Scotland and England ; and the
other is the great Schism which had existed in the Church since
1378. The former put many difficulties in the way of Scottish
students attending the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge ;

1 ' Post haec ad ecclesiam Sancti Andreae venit, et, occurrente ei regina, sus-
ceptus a scholasticis et plebe pontificis loco successit.' Historia Novorum in Anglla
(Rolls Series), p. 283.

2 Registrum Priorafus, p. 316. z Exchequer Rolls, vol. iii. pp. 121, 138.

4 MS. Acta Facultatis Artium. 5 Reliquiae Divi Andreae, p. 187.

6 Major, who records the foundation of the University of St. Andrews in a single
line, adds : ' Praelatorum Scotiae incuriam admiror, qui Universitatem ante hos
dies nullam in regno habuerunt.' Historia, 1. vi. c. 10.

St. Andrews University 229

and the latter not only led to their molestation there, but it limited
the freedom of movement as well as the financial support which
students generally had been wont to enjoy on the Continent. Of
these two causes the latter was probably the more potent. For a
good many years before 1410 there seems to have been compara-
tively little academical intercourse between Scotland and England.
On the other hand Scottish students found their way in consider-
able numbers to the Universities of France and Italy. So long
as France and Scotland owned allegiance to Clement VII. and his
successor Benedict XIII., Scottish students laboured under no
disadvantages. But the case was quite different when France,
and especially the University of Paris, took up a hostile attitude
to Benedict XIII., and the crisis came when he was deposed,
along with Gregory XII., by the Council of Pisa on June 5, I4O9-1
As Scotland disregarded the decision of the Council and continued
to adhere to Benedict, Scottish students whether pursuing their
studies in England, France, or Italy, would be deemed Schismatics,
and the need for a university at home would at once become a
matter of extreme urgency.2

The precise circumstances in which the University of St.
Andrews arose have not been definitely stated by any of the
early historians of Scotland, and its own extant records yield
no information on the point. There is nothing to indicate
that its institution was a long-premeditated act. The limited
information available rather favours the view that it was called
into existence to meet a sudden emergency. For although the
University is in possession of a foundation charter embodied in

1 Even before this futile attempt to heal the Schism, the feeling in France against
Benedict was very bitter as may be seen from numerous contemporary documents.
For example, on May 21, 1408, the University of Paris declared 'Petrum de
Luna fore non tantum schismaticum pertinacemque habendum, verum etiam
haereticum, perturbatorem pacis et sanctae unionis ecclesiae.' Whereupon, on
June 5, Charles VI. ordained 'qu'aucune creance ni obeissance ne soit desormais
accordee aux bulles et lettres de Pierre de Lune, pour dons de prelatures, dignit6s
ou benefices.' Further, on March 20, 1409, Charles announced that he had
reserved a thousand benefices to be disposed of in favour of members of the
University of Paris as a reward for the great zeal with which they had laboured
to re-establish the union of the Church, without asking or requiring any favours
from Pope Benedict. Bulaeus, Hist. Univ. Paris., vol. v. pp. 160, 167, 186;
Jourdain, Index Chartarum, p. 223.

2 Cosmo Innes recognised the consequences of the Schism as they affected Scot-
land and England, but it does not appear to have occurred to him that they were
even more far reaching as regards Scotland and the Continent. National Manu-
scripts of Scotland, pt. ii. p. xv.

230 J. Maitland Anderson

a confirmatory papal bull, the granting of this charter does
not appear to have been the initial step in the founding of
the University. It was more probably the immediate, or at
all events the early, result of the University's actual existence.
Such at least is the inference to be drawn from the oldest
extant account of the beginnings of the University. Walter
Bower, Abbot of Inchcolm, the continuator of Fordun's Scoti-
chronicon, who had excellent opportunities of knowing the exact
circumstances, makes no mention of a foundation charter at all
in the short chapter he devotes to the foundation of the Uni-
versity. He is even silent as to who the founder was. All he
says is that in the year 1410, 'after the feast of Pentecost [May
n], a Studium Generate Universitatis began in the city of St.
Andrew of Kylrymonth in Scotland, in the time of Henry of
Wardlaw, bishop, and of James Biset, prior, of the said St.
Andrew.' l The charter was not issued till more than a year and
nine months later, viz. on February 28, 1412.

Subsequent documents show that four persons were closely
associated in the foundation of the University. These were the
King of Scotland, the Bishop of St. Andrews, the Prior of St.
Andrews, and the Archdeacon of St. Andrews. Others no doubt
lent their aid, but these are the men who are entitled to rank as
its chief promoters. All four were men of learning and culture,
to whom the founding of a university must have been a congenial
enterprise. In a former number of the Scottish Historical Review"*
I have dealt with the share taken by King James I. in the founding
of the University of St. Andrews, and there is no need to refer to
the facts of his life here. In the present paper I therefore confine
myself to brief notices of the Bishop, the Prior, and the Arch-
deacon.

Bishop Wardlaw is usually described as the younger son of Sir
Andrew Wardkw of Torry, Fifeshire ; but this is not borne out
by the results of recent investigation. He was most probably a
younger son of Henry Wardlaw of Wilton, in Roxburghshire,
and grandson of Henry Wardlaw of Wilton, who, in the beginning
of the fourteenth century, married a niece of Walter, Lord High
Steward of Scotland. Early in the fifteenth century, the laird of
Wilton married the eldest daughter and heiress of Sir James de

1 ScoticAronicon, 1. xv. c. xxii.

2 Vol. iii. p. 301. As this and the former article cover part of the same ground,
it has not been possible to avoid a certain amount of repetition, but the one does
not altogether supersede the other.

St. Andrews University 231

Valoniis, of Torry and Lochore, and from that time the Wardlaws
were generally designated as ' of Torrie.' Bishop Wardlaw was a
nephew of the celebrated Cardinal, Walter Wardlaw, Bishop of
Glasgow. He was probably born about 1365, but neither the name
of his mother nor the exact year of his birth has been discovered.1
As early as 1378, when he must have been quite young, his
uncle petitioned Clement VII. on his behalf for a canonry of
Glasgow, with expectation of a prebend.2 On December 7, 1380,
he was granted a safe conduct by King Richard II. of England,
to enable him and his kinsman, Alexander Wardlaw, to attend
either of the Universities of that country.3 He is said to have
chosen Oxford, but he cannot have remained there long, as his
name appears in the list of Determinants of the University of
Paris for the year 1383, along with that of Alexander.4 By
October 5, 1387, he was Licentiate in Arts, and had been
studying Civil Law at Orleans for two years.5 In a benefice roll
dated August 9, 1393, addressed to Clement VII. by the Uni-
versity of Avignon, the name of Henry Wardlaw occurs among
the graduates of noble birth.6 In a similar roll addressed to
Benedict XIII. by the same University in the following year
(October 18-23, J394) ne ^s agam entered among the * nobiles,'
and is described as * Henry de Wardlaw, Licentiate in Arts,
Precentor of the Church of Glasgow, born of noble parentage,
who is nephew of dominus Walter of good memory, Cardinal of
Scotland.'7 In a petition of 1395 for another benefice (granted
April 24), he is described as a student of Canon Law.8 In sub-
sequent years he is variously designated as Licentiate in Arts,
and Bachelor and Doctor of Canon Law. During his protracted
residence in France he obtained various lucrative ecclesiastical
preferments in Scotland, most of which he appears to have held
simultaneously.9

1 In the matter of the Wardlaw genealogy I follow the guidance of Mr. J. C.
Gibson, who has devoted much time and labour to the subject, and who was kind
enough to revise and correct what I had previously written.

2 Calendar of Petitions to the Pope, vol. i. p. 548.

3 Rotuli Scotiae, vol. ii. p. 3 1 .

4 Auctarium Chartularii Universitatis Parisiensis, vol. i. col. 648.

6 Calendar of Tapal Letters, vol. iv. p. 255.

6Fournier's Statuts et Privileges des univer sites fran$aises, vol. ii. p. 331.

7 Fournier's Statuts, vol. ii. p. 343. 8 CaL of Petitions to the Pope, vol. i. p. 584.
9 His name is of frequeut occurrence in the CaL of Petitions to the Pope, vol. i. and

in the CaL of Tapal Letters, vols. vii. viii.

232 J. Maitland Anderson

The promotion of Henry Wardlaw to the bishopric of St.
Andrews was a spontaneous act on the part of Benedict XIII., at
whose Court he is supposed to have been at the time resident,1
and by whom he was held in high esteem.2 The see had been
practically vacant since the death of Bishop Walter Trail in 1401,
although no less than three elections had taken place. During the
vacancy the Pope himself was in difficulties and had been besieged
in his palace at Avignon, but he appears to have acted with great
discrimination, and a wiser selection than Wardlaw could hardly
have been made. He had much in common with his pre-
decessor Bishop Trail, who had also been preferred to the see
without election. His ideals were of the same lofty nature,
his learning was equally varied, and his zeal for the purity
of church life and for the correction of abuses was not less
fervent. Bishop Wardlaw lived long enough to see the
University firmly established. He died at a good old age on
April 6, 1440. 3

James Biset had been Prior of St. Andrews since 1394, and was
Vicar General during the vacancy in the see between the death of
Bishop Trail and the consecration of Bishop Wardlaw. Before his
promotion he was one of the canons of the Priory. He was a
Licentiate of Canon Law, probably of the University of Avignon,4
and had lectured on that subject in the University of Paris for three
years previous to I39I.5 Like other churchmen studying abroad,
he was provided to various benefices at home, including the Priory

1 This supposition appears to rest on Bower's phrase : ' repatriavit a curia
Avinione.' Scotichronicon, 1. vi. c. xlvii.

2 So far as I know, the exact date of Wardlaw's appointment to the bishopric of
St. Andrews has not hitherto been given by any writer on Scottish history. The
late Bishop Dowden, in his * Notes on the succession of the bishops of St. Andrews '
(Journal of Theological Studies, vol. v. p. 254) states that 'a lacuna in the archives at
Rome prevents us from affixing a precise date to his provision.' Working on the
basis of recorded consecration years, the bishop skilfully narrowed the issue to
between May 20, 1403, and September 13, 1403. But there is no lacuna in the
Vatican archives at that particular period, and the precise date of Wardlaw's
provision (September 10, 1403) was given by Denifle, so long ago as 1894, in the
Auctarium, vol. i. p. xxxv., and again in 1 898 by Eubel in his Hierarchia Catkolica,
vol. i. p. 88. I lately procured a full transcript of this provision from the Papal
registers and append it to this article.

3 Scotichronicon, 1. vi. c. xlvii.

4 His name occurs in a benefice roll of that university dated Aug. 9, 1393, in
which he is designated ' can. expr. prof. eccl. S. Andree, ord. S. Aug., in jure can.
lie.' Fournier's Statuts, vol. ii. p. 332.

5Ca/. of Petitions to the Pope, vol. i. p. 575.

St. Andrews University 233

of Loch Leven.1 On July 6, 1395, the Prior was stated to be
acting in the Roman Curia.2 Bower, who up to 1418 was also a
Canon at St. Andrews, is exceedingly lavish in his praise of Prior
Biset, whom he declares to have been second to none of his pre-
decessors, resembling a well-grafted shoot of a true vine that grew
into a choice tree. He carried out extensive alterations and
improvements on the monastic buildings and the Cathedral
Church, and was exceptionally active in protecting the rights and
privileges of the Priory. He was personally a good and great
man, humble, grave, prudent, affable, more ready to forgive than
to punish. He set a noble example to the brethren, many of
whom, following in his footsteps, rose to dignified positions in
the church. Nor is this to be wondered at, for he took care that
two of his canons should be Masters in Theology, two Licentiates
in Decrees, and five Bachelors in Decrees.3 Biset, who is described
by Martin V. as Papal Chaplain as well as Prior,4 died on June
25, I4i6.5

Thomas Stewart, the Archdeacon of St. Andrews, had been
longer in office than either the bishop or the prior. Moreover,
if he had cared to exert himself, he might have been bishop
instead of Wardlaw, and so, perhaps, have altered the whole
circumstances of the founding of the University. The arch-
deacon was one of King Robert II. 's somewhat numerous family
of illegitimate sons. As such, he was well provided with church
livings, which were used, in part, to enable him to prosecute his
studies at Paris. On February 10, 1380, Clement VII., of his
own motion, made provision to him of the archdeaconry of
St. Andrews, void by the promotion of John de Peebles to the
see of Dunkeld, together with the canonry and prebend of Stobo
in the diocese of Glasgow, void by the death of James Stewart,
his brother.6 On September 4, 1389, at the request of his father,
he obtained from Clement the deanery of Dunkeld, and a dispen-
sation to hold both dignities as well as a canonry and prebend
attached to the deanery.7 Again, on May 10, 1393, Clement
granted Thomas Stewart's own petition for a canonry of Brechin,
with expectation of a prebend, notwithstanding that he already

1 Cal.t as above, vol. i. pp. 575, 576. His right to hold one of his benefices was
disputed by Richard Cady, Bachelor of Canon Law, priest of the diocese of
Dunkeld, pp. 594, 597.

2 Regis frum Prioratus, p. 2. 8 Scotichronicon, 1. vi. cc. Iv. Ivi.
4CW. of Papal Letters, vol. vii. p. 63. 5 Scotichronicon, 1. vi. c. Ivi. /
6Ca/. of Petitions to the Pope, vol. i. p. 551. 7 Col,, as above, vol. i. p. 574.

234

J. Maitland Anderson

had prebends of Glasgow and Dunkeld.1 During this period he
seems to have been a student at Paris, although there is no
mention of his name in the printed records. In the first year of
Benedict XIII. (August 13, 1395) ne was granted permission,
while at the University, to visit his archdeaconry by deputy, and
receive money procurations for five years, as also to lecture on,
and teach, Civil Law for five years. He was then described as a
Bachelor of Canon Law.2 On November 30 of the same year, he
was granted a safe conduct by King Richard II. of England for
four months, along with six horsemen and attendants, but the
purpose of the journey is not stated.3 Between 1384 and 1402
the Exchequer Rolls record a number of remissions of custom
in his favour.4 On July I, 1401, he was elected Bishop of
St. Andrews, but being, in the words of Bower,5 a man of most
modest disposition and of dove-like simplicity, he renounced all
claim to the bishopric when he found that formidable difficulties
stood in the way of his procuring papal confirmation of the
election. On June 5, 1405, he rented from the prior and canons
the lands of Balgove and other adjoining acres near St. Andrews.6
On October 4, 1422, he sanctioned the sale of certain lands in
North Street by Thomas Stewart, scutifer, St. Andrews, to Prior
James de Haldenston;7 while on July 20, 1430, he acquired
from Marjory Litstar a property in South Street lying between
the land of John Ruglen on the east, and the common vennel
which leads to the church of St. Leonard on the west.8 The
dates of his birth and death have not been ascertained but, in
spite of statements to the contrary, he must have held the arch-
deaconry for at least fifty years. In virtue of his office he became
one of the first conservators of the privileges of the University.

Perhaps at no other time was there more learning and less
corruption among the clergy at St. Andrews than in the days of
Bishop Wardlaw, Prior Biset, and Archdeacon Stewart. It was a
time when the local circumstances were singularly well suited to
meet the national need for a home university. The harmonious
co-operation of the Bishop, Prior, and Archdeacon removed
difficulties of various kinds which might otherwise have been
insuperable.

1 Cat., as above, vol. i. p. 577.
ZRotttfi Scotiae, vol. ii. p. 130.

6 Scotichronicon, 1. vi. c. xlvii.

7 MS. Pittance Writs, No. 18.

2 Cal.t as above, vol. i. p. 592.
4 Vol. iii. pp. 122, 524, 551, 682.
6 Rtgistrum Prioratus, p. 4.22.
8 MS. Pittance Writs, No. 25.

St. Andrews University 235

Fortunately, the names of the first teachers in the University
have been preserved by Bower.1 First of all, there was Master
Laurence of Lindores, who expounded the fourth book of the
Sentences of Peter Lombard. Then followed Master Richard
Cornell, Archdeacon of Lothian ; Dominus John Litstar, Canon
of St. Andrews ; Master John Scheves, Official of St. Andrews ;
and Master William Stephen, afterwards Bishop of Dunblane ; all
of whom lectured in the Faculty of Canon Law. Masters John
Gill, William Fowlis, and William Croiser were the lecturers in
Philosophy and Logic. Most of these names have been repeated
by subsequent historians, including Hector Boece2 and Arch-
bishop Spottiswoode,3 although with a somewhat different arrange-
ment of their duties.* But whatever may have been the proper
sphere of each Doctor and Master it seems clear that the
University started with a staff of qualified teachers in the Faculties
of Divinity, Law, and Arts.

Of the personal history of these pioneer Doctors and Masters
at St. Andrews not much is known. They had all been educated
in France, for the most part at Paris, and, as a matter of course,
they were without exception Churchmen.

Perhaps the most distinguished of them all was Laurence of
Lindores, who is characterised by Bower 5 as ' a great theologian
and a man of venerable life ' ; and by a later historian as ' the
most learned theologian of his day in Scotland.'6 He was
certainly the one who identified himself most closely with the
University, in which he held a prominent position till the day of
his death. But before the University was founded, Laurence was
a well-known and dreaded ecclesiastic, and had secured for his
name a permanent, if not an enviable, place in Scottish history.

It may be assumed that Laurence was a graduate in Arts of the
University of Paris, as he incepted there on April 7, I393.7 On

1 Scotichronicon, 1. xv. c. xxii. 2 Scotorttm Historiae, 1. xvi.

3 History of the Church of Scotland, ed. Russell, vol. i. p. 113.

4 According to Bower's arrangement, Cornell lectured on the Decretals ; Litstar
on Canon Law in the morning (de mane) • and Scheves and Stephen afterwards
(i.e. post prandium). This Parisian custom is explained by Crevier thus : ' Ces
lecteurs du matin, legentes de mane, remplissoient bien leur denomination.
C'etoient des bacheliers, dont les Ie9ons devoient etre faites et achev^es avant le coup
de Prime de Notre-Dame, qui etoit le signal des lecons des docteurs.' Hist, de
rUniv. de Paris, vol. iv. p. 177.

5 Scotichronicon, 1. xv. c. xxii. Other characterisations will be found in 1. xv.
c. xx. and 1. xvi. cc. xx. xxiv.

6 Hume Brown, History of Scotland, vol. i. p. 206. 7 Auctarium, vol. i. col. 677.

236 J. Maitland Anderson

May 5, of the same year, he was unanimously elected Proctor of
the English Nation, but for reasons satisfactory to the Nation he
was excused from accepting office.1 While pursuing his studies
in the Faculty of Theology at Paris he continued to act as one of
the Regents in Arts in the University, and prepared quite a number
of young Scotsmen for graduation between 1395 anc^ H01-2 On
November 19, 1395, Laurence and two other Masters were elected
Pro visors for the feast of St. Edmund, the patron saint of the Nation.3
It is in connexion with a supplication made by him to the English
Nation to be allowed to transmit a special benefice roll to Benedict
XIII. , on the part of masters belonging to Scotland, that his
name appears for the last time in the printed records of the
University of Paris. He wished this roll either to be sealed with
the seal of the Nation, or to be inserted in the roll of another
Nation. This was on August 7, 1403. The Nation declined to
sanction the roll, as being prejudicial to its interests (apparently
for reasons connected with the Schism), and this decision was
supported by the University.4 But the roll was probably other-
wise transmitted, as there is still extant a short list of petitioners
for benefices of that year, mostly Scotsmen, including Laurence,
who was applying for a canonry of Aberdeen, and is designated
* Clerk of the diocese of St. Andrews, Master in Arts, and
Bachelor in Theology.' 5

On the accession of Benedict XIII., in 1394, Laurence had
petitioned for and obtained the promise of at least three ecclesi-
astical benefices in Scotland, viz. one in the gift of the Bishop of
St. Andrews (October 13) ; another in the gift of the Bishop of
St. Andrews or of the Abbot and Convent of Arbroath (October
26), and the third in the gift of the Abbot and Convent of
Lindores (October 29).° It was probably about this time that he
obtained the church of Creich, in Fife, of which he is known to
have been rector in 1408 7 and onwards. On March 26, 1414,
Benedict XIII., on petition, appropriated this church to the Abbey
of Lindores, whose buildings had been ruined and its revenues
diminished by reason of its nearness to the sylvestrian Scots.8

1 Auctarium, vol. i. col. 678. 2 Auctarium^ vol. i. cols. 703-837.

3 Auctarium, vol. i. col. 714. 4 Auctarium, vol. i. col. 864.

5 Auctarium, vol. i. p. Ixxv. ; Chartularium Unhersitatis Parisiensis, vol. iv. p. 109.

6 Cal. of Petitions to the Tope, vol. i. pp. 620, 591, 583.

7 Reg. Monast. de Tasselet, pp. 338, 339.

8 Cal. of Petitions to the Pope, vol. i. p. 601. 'Scoti sylvestres' is a phrase frequently
used by Major in his Historia to distinguish the 'caterani,' or wild Scots, from

St. Andrews University 237

This arrangement was to take effect on the death of Laurence,
and a perpetual vicar with a fit stipend was to be appointed.1 But
he must have resigned the church between July 9, 1432, when he
was 'rector de Crech', and February 4, 1433, when he was 'olim
rector de Crech.' 2

Laurence has also been described as Abbot of Scone, Abbot of
Lindores, and Official of Lindores, but there is a lack of evidence
sufficient to prove that he held any one of these offices. The
editor of the Liber ecclesie de Scony in his notes on the abbots,3
states that ' the next whom we find styled abbot of Scone, is Law-
rence de Lindoris, in 1411, who was the first professor of Law
at St. Andrews,' and he gives as his authorities 'Fordun and
Dempster.' Fordun, or rather Bower, nowhere calls Laurence
abbot of Scone ; but Dempster does so,4 and it is Dempster that
the editor follows, even to the date, which he takes from a
separate clause : — ' Florebat anno MCCCCXI.' Dr. David
Laing varies the above phraseology and writes * Laurence of
Lindores, Abbot of Scone, in 1411, was the first Professor of
Law in the newly erected University of St. Andrews.'5 Dr.
Alexander Laing, misreading and misquoting this sentence, boldly
affirms that Laurence was Abbot of Scone in 14 n.6 Mackenzie
Walcott also ranks Laurence as an abbot of Scone, but he does
not commit himself to a date.7

The succession of abbots of Scone at the beginning of the
fifteenth century is unfortunately defective, and it is impossible
to say, with certainty, that Laurence's name ought not to appear in
the list. On the other hand, if he held that abbacy at all his
tenure of it must have come to an end before April 25, 1418, on
which day Adam de Crenach (or Crannach) was consecrated abbot
by Bishop Wardlaw, at St. Andrews.8 Hector Boece includes
Laurence among those who received promotion at the hands of
James I. after his return to Scotland in 1424. The king, he

the * Scoti domiti,' or civilised Scots. Lindores Abbey, being on the fringe of
Earnside forest, would be peculiarly liable to the visits of marauding Highlanders.

1 It falls to be noted that as this appropriation did not take effect during the
obedience of Scotland to Benedict, Bishop Wardlaw, at the instance of the king,
and with counsel and assent of the chapter of St. Andrews, made the appropriation
by his ordinary authority. On June 16, 1429, Martin V. gave a mandate to the
Abbot of Dunfermline to make the appropriation by papal authority if he found
the facts to be as stated. Cal. of Papal Letters, vol. viii. p. 143.

2 Acta Facultatis Artium. 3 Preface, p. xii. 4 Hist, Eccles. Gen. Scot. p. 443.
5 Laing's Knox, vol. i. p. 497. 6 Laing's Lindores Abbey, p. 103.

1 Ancient Church of Scotland, p. 315. 8 Scotickronicon, 1. xv. c. xxx.

238 J. Maitland Anderson

says, made Laurence Abbot of Scone, but that adverse fates soon
dragged him away.1 Adam de Crenach, however, was still in
office on July n, 1426,2 and when he resigned and became a
canon, apparently in 1432, Eugenius IV., on October 29 of that
year, made provision of the abbey to John of Inverkeithing, a
canon of Holyrood, who died before obtaining possession. There-
after, on September 23, 1439, tn*s benefice, which had been
specially reserved by Eugenius before the resignation of Adam,
was granted in commendam for life to James Kennedy, Bishop of
Dunkeld (afterwards of St. Andrews). At the same time, William
Stury,3 an Augustinian canon, who had held the abbacy since
Adam's resignation, under a pretext of election by the convent
and confirmation by the ordinary, was removed.4 There was thus
no room for Laurence after 1418.

As at Scone, the succession of abbots at Lindores is fragmentary.
Dr. Alexander Laing does not claim Laurence as an abbot of
Lindores, but he twice calls him 'official of Lindores.'5 It is
almost certain that he never was abbot, and there was no such
person about the abbey as an * official.' Probably all that Dr. Laing
meant to imply by the term was that Laurence was an official or
officer of some sort connected with the abbey. Mr. W. B. D. D.
Turnbull, the editor of the Liber Sancte Marie de Lundoris,
blames Dr. John Anderson, the writer of the new statistical
account of the parish of Newburgh, for enrolling Laurence in the
list of abbots of Lindores ;6 but that is scarcely fair, for all that
Dr. Anderson does is to enrol him in his very brief list * of the
abbots and other dignified clergy connected with this monastery.'7
It is Leighton, whom Turnbull dubs the * echo ' of Dr. Anderson
and the ' fag ' for Mr. Swan, who, on his own account, explicitly
states that ' in the beginning of the fifteenth century, Laurence
was abbot of Lindores.'8 Laurence's name, like the names of so
many of his contemporaries, was in all likelihood territorial, and
did not necessarily connect him with the abbey. Still, seeing that

1 Scotorum Historiae, 1. xvi. 2 Cal. of Papal Letters, vol. vii. p. 21.

3 This is doubtless the ' dompnus Willelmus Stury,' who was chamberlain of
the prior of St. Andrews in 1417. (Exchequer Rolls, vol. iv. p. 282.) The
name is also written Sturi, and, in some manuscripts, Skurry. In 1429 he was
a professor of theology in the University. He may also be the unnamed Abbot
of Scone alluded to by Bower in his eulogy of Biset (Scotichronicon, 1. vi. c. Ivi.)

4 Cal. of Papal Letters, vol. viii. pp. 270, 427.

5 Lindores Abbey, pp. 103, 456. 6 Introduction, pp. vi. vii.

7 New Statistical Account, Fifeshire, p. 66. 8 History of Fife, vol. ii. p. 166.

St. Andrews University 239

in all countries the great majority of Inquisitors belonged to the
Dominican order, it is yet not unreasonable to suppose that
Laurence was in some way associated with the Benedictine Abbey
of Lindores.

After returning to his native country, probably about 1404,
Laurence seems to have set himselt with great zeal to the task of
suppressing Lollardism. ' He gave peace to heretics and Lollards
nowhere within the Kingdom,' says Bower.1 In this invidious
task he may have been encouraged by Robert, Duke of Albany,
who had the reputation of being a firm catholic and a hater of
Lollards and heretics.2 It was at the instigation of Laurence, in
his capacity as Inquisitor of heretical pravity, that, at Perth, in
1406 or 1407, the first martyr fire was kindled in Scotland.3
Another followed in 1433, when Paul Craw was burned at
St. Andrews, but on this occasion, if Boece's version of the story
can be trusted,4 Laurence had the vigorous assistance of John
Fogo, Abbot of Melrose.5 A heretic of a more academical type
than either of these fell to be dealt with by Laurence and others
(including William Stury, the irregular abbot of Scone, already
referred to) on October 27, 1435. This was Robert Gardner,
Bachelor in Decrees, a priest, who, in a public oration, delivered in
the Schools of Theology at St. Andrews, had advanced ten pro-
positions that were calculated to bring the teaching of the University
into ridicule. But Gardner had no martyr blood in his veins, so
he incontinently and humbly owned that his propositions were
false, erroneous, and scandalous, as well as offensive to pious ears,
and with his hand on the Holy Gospels, he swore never to sustain
or defend them again either publicly or privately, by himself or by
another. Having escaped the flames himself, he promised to
destroy and annihilate his oration and every copy of it that he
could obtain.6

1 Scotichronicon, 1. xvi. c. xx. 2Wyntoun, Cronykil, b. ix. ch. xxvi.

3 I have not been able to discover under what circumstances Laurence came to
be appointed Inquisitor for Scotland. My correspondent in Rome informed
me some years ago that at the period in question * non e facile trovare atti
che possano riguardare la Scozia.'

^Scotorum Historiae, 1. xvii.

5 Boece's additional statement that the king was so mightily pleased with
Fogo's conduct in this business that he gave him the Abbey of Melrose is
quite contrary to fact.

6 The following are samples of Gardner's offensive propositions : Quid enim
in grammatica reperiri poterit nisi Prisciani rudimenta ? Quid enim in rhetorica
nisi Tullii blandimenta ? Quid in astrologia nisi coelorum influentiae poterit
inveniri ? A eta Facultatis Artium,

240 J. Maitland Anderson

Laurence's activity and influence in the early years of the
University must have been very great, although the record of
them is somewhat meagre. He was the first Rector of the
University, and as such had a large share in the drafting of
its original statutes. He was again Rector in 1432, when he
witnessed King James's charters confirming the privileges of
the University, and he may have held that office in other years.
He was Dean of the Faculty of Arts in 1415, and again,
apparently continuously, from 1431 to 1437. He was Receptor
of the Faculty in 1426, when the auditors found fault with his
accounts. He had advanced ten marks towards making the head
of the Faculty mace, and the completed mace had been lodged in
his custody until the money was refunded by the Faculty. The
auditors appear to have contended that after the repayment of his
loan had been accounted for he was due the Faculty £20 i6s. 8d.
— and so * de isto compute non fuit concordia.' In 1430 Laurence
was once more, and unanimously, elected Receptor, but he gave
many reasons for not accepting the office, while graciously allowing
himself to be appointed one of the auditors of the accounts of the
retiring Receptor. He likewise took part in the ordinary routine
work of the Faculty of Arts by acting, on occasion, as a deputy
and an examiner. On the institution of the Pedagogy, in 1430,
Laurence was elected the first principal master in presence of
Bishop Wardlaw and with his approval. There is no record
as to what he did for the Faculty of Theology, to which he
at first belonged, except that he was present at a meeting held
on March 18, 1429, for the ratification of the statutes of that
Faculty.1

Laurence of Lindores died in the middle of September, 1437.
On September 16, George de Newtoun, then the senior master in
Arts and Rector of the University, called the other masters
together, who elected him Dean and persuaded him to take office.
At the same meeting arrangements were made for taking over
from the executors of Laurence the Faculty mace, as well as the
charters and other documents which had been in his keeping.
On the following day it was decided that there should be solemn
obsequies, at the common expense of the Faculty, for the soul of
Master Laurence of Lindores, formerly Dean of the Faculty of
Arts — * et ita factum est.' 2

Laurence owned a house in St. Andrews which retained his

1 Acta Facultatls Artlum and other university documents.

2 Acta Facultatis Artium,

St. Andrews University 241

name long after his death. When St. Leonard's College was
founded in 1512 one of its endowments was an annual rent of
twelve pence ' de tenemento magistri Laurentii de Lundoris.' A
curious glimpse of the domestic side of University life is obtained
under date August 13, 1456, when the Faculty of Arts called
upon Master Thomas Ramsay to restore certain large beams
which were left in the kitchen of the College of St. John the
Evangelist by Master Laurence of Lindores, formerly rector of
Creich and master of the said College, or to show reasonable cause
why he should not do so.1 The College of St. John had been
merged in the Pedagogy.

Richard de Cornell, a man of noble parentage, was a native of
Forfarshire, having been born within four miles of Dundee. He
studied Canon Law at the University of Orleans, and afterwards
lectured in the University of Avignon. In accordance with the
custom of the time, he held various church preferments in
Scotland during his residence in France. He is described suc-
cessively as Chaplain to the Queen of Scotland and Vicar of
Musselburgh (1385) ; Member of the household of David, Earl
of Carrick, eldest son of Robert, King of Scotland, and Chaplain
of the Hospital of St. Mary Magdalene, Musselburgh (1394);
Bachelor of Canon Law and Rector of Ecclesmachan (1404) ;
Licentiate of Canon Law and perpetual Vicar of St. Mary's in the
island of Arran (1405) ; Archdeacon of Dunkeld (1406) ;
Rector of St. Mary's, Arran (1407) ; ambassador of the Duke of
Albany, Governor of Scotland, Archdeacon of Dunkeld, Canon
and Prebendary of Erskine in Glasgow (1408). In 1404 he
petitioned for, and was granted, the perpetual vicarage of Dundee,
apparently on condition that he resigned the church of Eccles-
machan. In 1408 he was promoted from the Archdeaconry of
Dunkeld to that of Lothian, which office he held for ten or eleven
years.2 He witnessed a charter at St. Andrews on January 22,
1419.

John Litstar was a Bachelor of Canon Law and one of the
Canons of the Priory of St. Andrews. On March 10, 1418,
Benedict XIII., of his own motion, made him Prior in succession
to James Biset ; but, in ignorance of his own promotion, he
procured the election of James de Haldenston, one of his fellow-
canons, and proceeded, by order of the chapter, with him to the

1 Acta, Facultatls Artiutn.

2 Cal. of Petitions to the Pope, vol. i. pp. 566-638 ; CaL of Papal Letters, vol. vii.
p. 238 ; Reg. Mag. Sig. vol. i. p. 235 ; Fournier's Statuts, vol. iii. pp. 486, 488.

Q

242 J. Maitland Anderson

court of Martin V., to whom he paid obedience and reverence.
On his way home he found, at Bruges, Benedict's letters contain-
ing his own appointment, ' whereupon, coming to himself, he
wept bitterly, and knew not what to do, to make amends for his
ingratitude and grave offence.' In a petition l for absolution,
rehabilitation, and dispensation,' he prostrated himself before
Pope Benedict, saying, ' God be merciful to me a sinner.' Bene-
dict afterwards confirmed his appointment to the Priory, but by
that time (December 13, 1418) Scotland had formally withdrawn
its obedience from him, and the appointment failed to take effect.
On March 9, 1418, Benedict had assigned to James de Halden-
ston a yearly pension of 200 gold scudi on the fruits of the
Priory ; but on December 8 of the same year he deprived him of
the said pension * as it appears that he is a schismatic and
adherent of Otto de Colonna, who calls himself Martin V.' l
Bower, who styles Litstar a Licentiate in Decrees, a venerable
and religious man, and a most worthy canon, gives a somewhat
different version of these remarkable transactions, but there is no
difference in the result.2 According to Boece, the king made
Litstar Prior of Inchcolm.3 Bower, however, records his own
appointment to that abbacy on April 17, I4i8,4 and he held it
until his death in 1449.

John de Scheves was a licentiate of Canon Law. In 1418 he
petitioned for and abtained, from Benedict XIII., on June 15, a
canonry and prebend of Glasgow, and the Archdeaconry of Teviot-
dale, notwithstanding that he held the church of Arbuthnot in
the diocese of St. Andrews. At that time he was described as
Official of St. Andrews, Rector of the University, and Counsellor
of Robert, Duke of Albany, Governor of the Realm.5 Curiously
enough, he appears to be the same person who, on January 26,
1418, had obtained collation and provision, from Pope Martin V.,
of a canonry of Glasgow and another of Aberdeen, with reserva-
tion of a prebend of each.6 His name occurs among the witnesses
to an undated charter of Bishop Wardlaw, where he is designated
Master John Scheves, Doctor of Decrees and Official General of
St. Andrews.7 John Scheves, Canon of Aberdeen and Mandatory
of Pope Eugenius IV., in I433,8 and Master John Scheves, Canon

1 Cal. of Petitions to the Pope, vol. i. pp. 608-61 1. 2 Scotichronicon, 1. vi. c. Ivii.
3Scotorum Historiae, 1. xvi. 4 Scotichronicon, 1. xv. c. xxx.

5 Cal. of Petitions to the Pope, vol. i. p. 609. 6 Cal. of Papal Letters, vol. vii. p. 102-
7 Reg. Mag. Sig. vol. ii. p. 57. 8C0/. of Papal Letters, vol. viii. p. 474.

St. Andrews University 243

of Glasgow and Clerk Register, 1426 and onwards,1 may have
been contemporaries of the same name ; but a University docu-
ment regarding certain feu duties, dated March 13, 1447, is
addressed ' venerabili et circumspecto viro dominion Johan de
Scheues, decretorum doctori, Glasguensis et Aberdonensis ecclesi-
arum canonico, ac officiali Sancti Andree generali.'

William Stephen was a Bachelor of Canon Law. In 1408,
Richard de Cornell obtained for him from Benedict XIII., the
Canonry and Prebend of Rhynie in Moray, notwithstanding that
he already had the Church of Eassie and the Hospital of Ednam
in the diocese of St. Andrews. In 1415 he is described as Canon
of Moray, Rector of Eassie, and Master of the Hospital of Ednam,
in a petition to Benedict XIII. (who, it was said, proposed to
appoint him to the see of Orkney) for license to hold the said
hospital in commendam for a year after he obtained the bishopric.2
Stephen was in due course promoted to the bishopric of Orkney,
and his consecration took place at the court of Benedict. In 1419
he was proctor in the Roman Court of the Duke of Albany,
Governor of Scotland, being one of the ambassadors sent to
announce the withdrawal of obedience by Scotland from Benedict
XIII. While there he obtained from Martin V. the church of
Gogar which he was to be allowed to hold in commendam for a year
along with other privileges, after obtaining possession of the
temporalities of the see of Orkney. On October 30, 1419, he
was translated by Martin V. from the see of Orkney to that of
Dunblane.3 At the time of his appointment, he was, according to
Keith,4 'Divinity reader in the University of St. Andrews.' He
was one of the ambassadors of the King of Scotland to the Roman
Court to whom Henry VI. of England granted a safe conduct on
June 9, I425.5 As principal auditor and receiver of the tax levied
for the payment of the king's ransom, his name is of frequent
occurrence in the fourth volume of the Exchequer Rolls. He
died in 1429.

Of the Philosophy Masters, John Gyll or Gill was a graduate
of Paris, being Bachelor of Arts in 1403, and Licentiate and
Master in 1405.° He is probably the John Gyll, clerk of the

1 Exchequer Rolls, vol. iv. pp. 400-654.

2 Cal. of Petitions to the Pope, vol. i. pp. 636, 604.
*Cal. of Papal Letters, vol. vii. pp. 103, 118, 133.
* Scottish Bishops, ed. Russell, p. 177.

5Rymer's F&dera, vol. x. p. 344. G ductarium, vol. i. cols. 853, 899, 901.

244 J« Maitland Anderson

diocese of St. Andrews, who, in 1434, along with others (includ-
ing John Scheves), was a claimant to the canonry and prebend
of Belhelvie, in Aberdeenshire, which had been bestowed upon
William Turnbull, Canon of Aberdeen (afterwards Bishop of
Glasgow).1 He may also have been the John Gyll, Chancellor
of Dunkeld, who was present at the ratification of the
Statutes of the Faculty of Theology on March 18, 1429. His
name occurs several times in the Acta Facuhatis Artium. On
December 12, 1425, the Faculty decreed that anything contained
in that book which might be to the reproach and scandal of Gyll
and. another master should be deleted by the Dean ; on November
19, 1427, he was appointed an examiner and took the customary
oath in the hands of the Chancellor; on January 12, 1428, he
was absent and another examiner was elected in his place ; on
February 3, 1429, he was appointed, along with Laurence of
Lindores and others, to assist the Dean in carrying out some
reforms in the Faculty ; on April 4, 1430, he was again elected an
examiner ; and on May 28, of the same year, he was chosen one
of the auditors of the Receptor's accounts. A writer in Northern
Notes and Queries 2 had heard that there is a tombstone to Gyll's
memory at St. Andrews ; but no such thing is known to exist
there.

William Fowlis, or de Foulis, who belonged to the diocese of
Dunblane, was also a graduate in Arts of Paris, but as his M.A.
degree was not obtained until 1411, it is doubtful if he began
teaching at St. Andrews so early as 1410. He is usually desig-
nated Master of Arts, but in 1432 he is called Bachelor of
Theology. As his history is obscure during the first ten years
after his graduation at Paris, it may be concluded that he was
busy with his work at St. Andrews. From 1421 to 1439 he
comes into the light as the holder of a prominent place in Scot-
land as a statesman as well as a churchman. During that period
he is met with as rector of Cambuslang ; rector of Seton ; provost
of the collegiate church of Bothwell ; archdeacon of St. Andrews ;
secretary of Archibald Earl of Douglas ; counsellor of the king ;
and keeper of the Privy Seal. On February 21, and July 10,
1423, he had safe conducts to England, along with others, to
treat for a final peace ; and he was entrusted with other public
missions. Early in 1424 he was presented to the perpetual
vicarage of the parish church of Edinburgh by King James, as
patron, but Bishop Wardlaw refused to institute him, whereupon

1 Cal. of Papal Letter S, vol. viii. p. 490. 2Vol. iii. p. 154.

St. Andrews University 245

he appealed to the apostolic see and obtained from Martin V. a
mandate of inquiry to be followed by collation and assignation if
the patronage and presentation were found to be lawful, with
certain stipulations as to resigning the provostship of Bothwell and
the church of Seton. During all these years his name only occurs
twice in connexion with the University. In his capacity as keeper
of the privy seal he transmitted to the Faculty of Arts in 1432 an
' Appunctamentum ' which had been drawn up, or approved, by
the king, containing a series of regulations for the better manage-
ment of University affairs. On December n, 1439, he was
present at a meeting of the Faculty of Arts when new statutes
were affirmed and approved, and he appended his signature to
them. He appears to have died in I44I.1

William Croyser, or Croiser, belonged to the diocese of St.
Andrews. He was a Bachelor of Arts of Paris of 1407 and a
Master of 1 409. 2 In 1415 he obtained from Benedict XIII. a
canonry and prebend of Dunkeld, who also granted to him the
parish church of Kirkgunzeon in commendam? He appears to
have been resident in Paris as a student of Theology, when
Martin V. was elected Pope. From him, so early as January 20,
1418, he procured collation and provision of the canonry and
prebend and precentorship of Moray, notwithstanding that he
held the canonry and prebend of Dunkeld, and the parish church
of Kirkgunzeon, and intended to litigate about the parish church
of Torbolton.4 This was probably the first appointment to a
Scottish benefice made by the new pope. On June 4 of the
same year Martin ordered collation and provision to be made to
Croyser of the canonry and prebend of Glasgow and the arch-
deaconry of Teviotdale.5 Other preferments followed, and
Croyser soon became a pluralist on a large scale, so much so
that in 1424 he was said to be ' opulently beneficed to the extent
of 1 60 marks sterling a year.'6 On June 27, 1422, Martin issued
letters requesting safe conduct * during two years for William
Croyser, Archdeacon of Teviotdale in the church of Glasgow,

1 Auctarium, vol. ii. cols. 100, 105, 106 ; Cal. of Papal Letters, vol. vii. pp. 203-
369 ; vol. viii. pp. 234, 458 ; Exchequer Rolls, vol. iv. pp. 432-667 ; Laing
Charters, No. 107; Reg. Mag. Sig. vol. \\.passint; Rymer's Fardera, vol. x. pp.
266-296 ; Scotichronicon, 1. xvi. c. xxxiii.

2 Auctarium, vol. ii. cols. 5, 55.

3 Cal. of Petitions to the Pope, vol. i. p. 603 ; Cal. of Papal Letters, vol. vii. p. 360.

4 Cal. of Papal Letters, vol. vii. p. 92. 5 Cal. of Papal Letters, vol. vii. p. 93.
6 Cal. of Tapal Letters, vol. vii. p. 344.

246 J. Maitland Anderson

papal acolyte and nuncio, and member of the pope's household,
when the pope is sending to divers parts [not named] on
business of the pope and the Roman church.' l He attended the
Council of Basel and remained there after the Council had been
transferred to Ferrara on September 18, 1437, adhering to and
recognising Felix V., the last of the antipopes.2 Croyser was
evidently of a litigious and quarrelsome disposition. Throughout
the reigns of Martin V. and Eugenius IV. he led a tempestuous
life, and the annals of his doings occupy much space in the papal
and other contemporary registers. Some of them, if worked out,
would make curious reading, but the record of them is complicated
in the extreme.*

These gleanings are sufficient to show that the University
of St. Andrews was inaugurated by men of intellectual attain-
ments and administrative ability of a very high order. It is
greatly to the credit of Scotland that such men were at hand
ready and willing to come to their country's aid in an educational
emergency. The promoters of other universities have had to
appeal to scholars of different nationalities to fill the chairs they
had provided. At St. Andrews the first doctors and masters, as
well as the founders, were all true and patriotic Scotsmen ; and
they brought with them to the new seat of learning not only
ample knowledge of the subjects they undertook to teach, but
likewise intimate acquaintance with the organisation and adminis-
tration of the leading universities of their time.

J. MAITLAND ANDERSON.
(To be continued.'}

APPENDIX

Copy of Papal Letter appointing Henry Wardlaw, Precentor of Glasgow,
to the Bishopric of St. Andrews, with relative mandates.

Dilecto filio Henrico Electo Sanctiandree salutem et apostolicam
benedictionem. Apostolatus officium, quamquam insufficientibus meritis,
nobis ex alto commissum, quo ecclesiarum omnium regimini presidemus
utiliter exequi, coadiuvante Domino, cupientes, soliciti corde reddimur ut
cum de ipsarum presertim Romane ecclesie immediate subiectarum regi-
minibus agitur committendis, tales eis in pastores preficere studeamus, qui
commissum sibi gregem dominicum sciant, non solum doctrina verbi sed

1 CaL of Papal Letters, vol. vii. p. 10. 2 Cal. of Papal Letters, vol. viii. p. 306.
3Cf. Theiner, Vetera Monumenta, pp. 373-375.

St. Andrews University 247

exemplo boni operis, informare commissasque sibi ecclesias in statu prospero
et tranquilio velint et valeant, duce Domino, gubernare. Dudum siquidem
bone memorie Waltero episcopo Sanctiandree regimini ecclesie Sanctiandree,
eidem Romane ecclesie immediate subiecte presidente, nos cupientes eidem
ecclesie, cum vacaret, per apostolice sedis providentiam utilem et ydoneam
presidere personam, provisionem ipsius ecclesie ordinationi et disposition!
nostre ea vice duximus specialiter reservandam. Decernentes extunc
irritum et inane si secus super hiis per quoscunque quavis auctoritate scienter
vel ignoranter contingeret attemptari. Postmodum vero prefata ecclesia,
per obitum ipsius Waited episcopi, qui extra Romanam curiam diem clausit
extremum, vacante, nos vacatione huiusmodi fidedignis relatibus intellects,
ad provisionem ipsius ecclesie celerem et felicem, de qua nullus preter nos
hac vice se intermittere potuit neque potest, reservatione et decreto obsis-
tentibus supradictis, ne ecclesia ipsa longe vacationis exponeretur incommodis,
paternis et solicitis studiis intendentes, post deliberationem quam de prefici-
endo eidem ecclesie personam huiusmodi, cum fratribus nostris habuimus
diligentem, demum ad te, precentorem ecclesie Glasguensis, decretorum
doctorem, in presbiteratus ordine constitutum, vite ac morum honestate
decorem, in spiritualibus providum, et in temporalibus circumspectum,
aliisque virtutum donis multipliciter insignitum, direximus oculos nostre
mentis, quibus omnibus debita meditatione pensatis, de persona tua nobis
et eisdem fratribus ob dictorum tuorum exigentiam meritorum accepta,
eidem ecclesie de dictorum fratrum consilio auctoritate apostolica provi-
demus, teque illi preficimus in episcopum et pastorem, curam et
administrationem ipsius ecclesie tibi in spiritualibus et temporalibus plenarie
committendo, in illo qui dat gratias et largitur premia confidentes, quod
prefata ecclesia sub tuo felici regimine, gratia tibi assistente divina, prospere
et salubriter dirigetur, ac grata in eisdem spiritualibus et temporalibus
suscipiat incrementa. lugum igitur Domini tuis impositum humeris
prompta devotione suscipiens, curam et administrationem predictas sic
exercere studeas solicite, fideliter, et prudenter, quod ecclesia ipsa guberna-
tore provide et fructuoso administratore gaudeat se commissam, tuque preter
eterne retributionis premium, nostram et dicte sedis benedictionem et gratiam
exinde uberius consequi merearis. Datum apud Pontemsorgie, Avinionensis
diocesis, mi. idus Septembris, pontificatus nostri anno nono.1

1 There are few indications of Wardlaw's presence in Scotland previous to his
appointment to the bishopric of St. Andrews. If it be the case that he was sent
on a mission to the papal court at Avignon and remained there several years, he
was probably for a time a prisoner with Benedict. The pope made his escape
from the palace at daybreak on March 12, 1403, and reached Chateau-Renard
in safety before nightfall. He left Chateau-Renard on April 17, and proceeded,
by way of Cavaillon and L'Isle, to Carpentras, which he entered on May 5.
Partly on account of the intense heat, and partly from urgent calls to return to
Avignon, Benedict advanced to the castle of Sorgues on June 26, with a consider-
able retinue. He remained there until October i, when he thought it prudent
to move southward to Salon, as a pestilence had broken out in the district of
Avignon. It is unnecessary to follow him farther at present. While at Sorgues,
Benedict promoted his nephew to an archbishopric, and made numerous provi-
sions to bishoprics and abbacies. Wardlaw received his appointment, as above, on
September 10, and he was doubtless consecrated immediately afterwards.

248 St. Andrews University

In eodem modo : Dilectis filiis capitulo ecclesie Sanctiandree, Romane
ecclesie immediate subiecte, salutem, etc. Apostolatus officium, etc., usque
incrementa. Quocirca discretioni vestre per apostolica scripta mandamus,
quatenus eundem Henricum Electum tanquam patrem et pastorem
animarum vestrarum grato admittentes honore ac exhibentes ei obedientiam
et reverentiam debitas et devotas, eius salubria monita et mandata suscipiatis
humiliter et efficaciter adimplere curetis, alioquin sententiam quam ipse rite
tulerit in rebelles ratam habebimus et faciemus, auctore Domino, usque ad
satisfactionem condignam inviolabiliter observari. Datum ut supra.

In eodem modo : Dilectis filiis clero civitatis et diocesis Sanctiandree
salutem, etc. Apostolatus officium, etc., usque incrementa. Quocirca dis-
cretioni vestre per apostolica scripta mandamus, quatenus eundem Henricum
Electum, etc., ut supra usque Datum, etc.

In eodem modo : Dilectis filiis populo civitatis et diocesis Sanctiandree
salutem, etc. Apostolatus, etc., usque incrementa. Quocirca universitatem
vestram rogamus et hortamur attente, per apostolica vobis scripta mandantes,
quatenus eundem Henricum Electum tanquam patrem et pastorem
animarum vestrarum devote suscipientes et debita honorificentia prose-
quentes, eius salubris monitis et mandatis humiliter intendentes, ita quop
ipse in vobis devotionis filios et vos in eo, per consequens, patrem invenisse
benevolum gaudeatis. Datum ut supra.

In eodem modo : Dilectis filiis universis vassallis ecclesie Sanctiandree
salutem, etc. Apostolatus officium, etc., usque incrementa. Quocirca
universitati vestre per apostolica scripta mandamus, quatenus eundem
Henricum Electum debito prosequentes honore ac ipsius monitis et
mandatis efficaciter intendentes, ei fidelitatem solitam necnon consueta
servitia et iura sibi a vobis debita exhibere integre studeatis, alioquin
sententiam sive penam quam ipse rite tulerit seu statuerit in rebelles, ratam
habebimus et faciemus, auctore Domino, usque ad satisfactionem condignam
inviolabiliter observari. Datum ut supra.

In eodem modo : Carissimo in Christo filio Roberto regi Scotorum illustri
salutem, etc. Grade divine premium et preconium humane laudis
acquiritur, si per seculares principes ecclesiarum prelatis, presertim eccle-
siarum cathedralium Romane ecclesie immediate subiectarum regimini
presidentibus, opportuni favoris presidium et honor debitus impendantur.
Dudum, etc., usque incrementa. Quocirca serenitatem regiam rogamus et
hortamur attente, quatenus eosdem Henricum Electum et ecclesiam suo
regimini commissam habens pro divina et apostolice sedis ac nostra
reverentia propensius commendatos, sic eisdem te exhibeas favore regio
benevolum et in opportunitatibus gratiosum, quod idem Electus per auxilium
tue gratie in commisso sibi ecclesie prefate regimine utilius proficere valeat,
tuque provide consequaris premia felicitatis eterne et nos celsitudinem
regiam dignis possimus in Domino laudibus commendare. Datum ut supra.

Exped. V. kalendas Octobris anno nono.

B. Fort.
Arch. Secret. Vatic. Regest. Avinion. Benedictl XIII. , torn. 30, fol. 99.

The Dispensation for the Marriage of John Lord
of the Isles and Amie Mac Ruari, 1337

THE following Dispensation is an important document for
the history of the Clan Donald. It was mentioned, but
not printed in Andrew Stuart's Genealogical History of the Stewarts,
and it was accidentally omitted in the Calendar of Papal Letters
(Rolls series). It is here printed in full, that all doubts as to its
existence and as to its tenor may be set at rest. The Pope is
Benedict XII., and the record reference is Regesta Vaticana,
vol. 124, fol. 89. J. MAITLAND THOMSON.

TEXT.

Venerabili fratri episcopo Sodorensi
salutem. Exhibita nobis dilectorum
filiorum nobilium virorum Johannis
nati quondam Engusii de IleetRegi-
naldi quondam Roderici de Insulis
tue diocesis petitio continebat quod
olim inter eos eorumque progenitores
consanguineos et amicos incentore
malorum hoste humani generis pro-
curante guerre dissensionses et
scandala ruerunt exorta propter que
homicidia incendia depredationes
spolia et alia mala quam plurima
evenerunt et continue evenire non
cessant et nichilominus multe ecclesie
illarum partium fuerunt passe et
patiuntur propterea non modica
detrimenta nam in eis cultus divinus
minuitur cessat devotio et decime
non solvuntur quinimo alique de
dictis ecclesiis quodam modo fuere
destructe et pejora evenire timentur
nisi de oportuno remedio celeriter
succurratur quodque ipsi desiderantes
tot et tantis periculis obviare in-

TRANSLATION.

To our venerable brother the bishop
of the Isles greeting. The Petition
of our beloved sons the noble men
John, son of the late Angus of He
and Reginald (son) of the late Roderic
of the Isles, of your diocese, shewn
to us, stated that formerly, by the
contrivance of that instigator of ill
deeds the enemy of the human race,
wars, disputes, and causes of offence
arose between them and their parents,
kinsmen and friends, on which ac-
count murders, fire raisings, plunder-
ings, pillagings, and very many other
evils happened and still do not cease
to happen, and moreover many
churches of those parts have suffered
and do suffer no slight damage there-
by, for divine worship in them grows
less, devotion ceases and tithes are
not paid, nay more, some of those
churches have been in a manner
destroyed, and worse, it is feared,
may happen unless recourse be
speedily had to a suitabler emedy;

250

Dispensation for Marriage

vicem habuere tractatum quod idem
Johannes et dilecta in Christo filia
Amia soror Reginaldi predicti adin-
vicem matrimonialiter copulentur ;
verum quia sicut asserunt dicti
Johannes et Amia quarto consan-
guinitatis gradu invicemse contingunt
matrimonium hujusmodi contrahere
nequeunt dispensatione super hoc
apostolica non obtenta. Quare
dicti Johannes et Reginaldus nobis
humiliter supplicarunt ut cum eisdem
Johanne et Amia super hoc dispen-
sare misericorditer dignaremur. Nos
igitur qui salutem querimus singul-
orum et libenter Christi fidelibus
quietis et pacis commoda procuramus
predictis scandalis et periculis obviare
salubriter intendentes eorum et dicte
Amie supplicationibus inclinati frater-
nitati tue de qua fiduciam gerimus in
Domino specialem per apostolica
scripta committimus et mandamus
quatenus si est ita cum eisdem
Johanne et Amia quod impedimento
consanguinitatis hujusmodi non
obstante hujusmodi matrimonium
adinvicem libere contrahere valeant
et in eo postquam contractum fuerit
licite remanere apostolica auctoritate
dispenses prolem suscipiendam ex
hujusmodi matrimonio legitimam
nuntiando. Datum Avinione ij
nonas Junij anno tertio.

and that they (the petitioners), desir-
ing to prevent so many and so great
dangers, have mutually contracted
that the said John and our beloved
daughter in Christ, Amie, sister of
the foresaid Reginald, shall be joined
together in marriage ; but because
(as they assert) the said John and
Amie are related to one another in
the fourth degree of kinship, they
cannot contract such marriage with-
out obtaining apostolic dispensation
therefor ; wherefore the said John
and Reginald have humbly besought
us that we would mercifully deign
to dispense with the said John and
Amie thereupon. We therefore who
seek the salvation of every one and
would gladly procure for Christ's
faithful people the benefits of quiet-
ness and peace, endeavouring whole-
somely to prevent the foresaid
offences and dangers, according to
the entreaties of them and of the
said Amie, by writings apostolic
commit to your brotherhood and
enjoin you, in whom we have special
confidence in the Lord, that, if it is
so, you by apostolic authority dis-
pense with the said John and Amie
so that notwithstanding such impedi-
ment of kinship, they may be able
to contract such marriage together
and, after it has been contracted,
lawfully to remain therein ; declar-
ing the issue to be born of such
marriage legitimate. Given at Avig-
non, 4 June, 1337.

Jacobite Songs

rT^HERE are a considerable number of Jacobite songs and
A ballads extant in broadsides which have not been reprinted.
There are also many in manuscript. The Rawlinson MSS. in the
Bodleian Library contain several small collections which would
be worth looking through. The four ballads which follow are
from broadsides in the Douce collection in the Bodleian and belong
to the reign of George I.

The first of the three, like 'James the Rover' printed on
p. 138 of the last number of this Review, celebrates the birthday
of the Prince. The second verse is evidently inspired by verse
two of ' Sally in Our Alley,' and it was doubtless sung to the
same tune. The second ballad illustrates one of the favourite
popular jests against the Hanoverian kings. The turnip, intro-
duced into England from Hanover, was satirically treated as the
characteristic if not the sole product of the electorate, and the
favourite diet of its rulers. This may be further illustrated by a
caricature, viz. ' The Hanover Turnip-man Come Again,' number
2578 in the British Museum Catalogue of Satirical Prints. The
date of this ballad can be determined by the last verse but one.
Melusina von Schulenburg, the mistress of George I., was created
Duchess of Munster, June 26, 1716, and Duchess of Kendal,
March 19, 1719. Mr. Paul, whose fate is lamented in the third
ballad, was William Paul, vicar of Orton-on-the-Hill in Leicester-
shire, executed on July 13, 1716, for having joined the rebels at
Preston. The Petition of Tyburn is easily dated. It was written
not long after Lord Stanhope's elevation to the peerage (July 12,
1717), and before his death (February 4, 1721).

It is to be hoped that the enquiry suggested in Mr. Lang's
interesting paper (S.H.R. viii. 132) will be further pursued, and
that he, or some one inspired by him, will systematically go
through Hogg's collection and test his texts. But in order to
trace the history of Jacobite songs it will be necessary to collect
also some of the earlier ones. Further, some Jacobite songs are

252 C. H. Firth

adaptations of popular songs. * The Royal Oak Tree,' which Mr.
Lang prints in the last number (S.H.R. viii. 133), is an imitation
of the song on ' The Mulberry Tree ' planted by Shakespeare,
which was composed for the Shakespearean Jubilee of 1769. The
chorus of ' The Royal Oak Tree ' is almost a repetition of that of
the earlier song :

4 All shall yield to the mulberry tree,
Bend to thee
Blest mulberry;
Matchless was he
Who planted thee,
And thou like him immortal be.'

It is perhaps worth noting that ' The Birthday Ode,' printed in
' The Loyalists' Song ' (S.H.R. viii. 135) of the last number, may
also be found in The Lyon in Mourning^ vol. iii. p. 288,
where it is headed ' By a friend meditating in bed betwixt 3 and 4
o'clock morning, Tuesday, September 21, the birthday of the
Queen of Hearts, 1773.' At the end there is the following note :
' N.B. — A copy of this was transmitted to John Farquharson of
Aldlerg, who, in return, said he would send it to the lovely pair.'
An account of its reception is given on p. 317 of the same
volume.

C. H. FIRTH.

AN EXCELLENT NEW BALLAD

Of all Days in the Year

I dearly love but one day,
That day is, the Tenth of June,

Which happen'd on a Munday.
In my best Cloathes with my white Rose

I'll drink a health to J — m — y
Who is our true and lawful K — g ;

I hope ere long he'll see me.

Old H[anover] does Turnips sell

And through the streets do[es] cry them;
Young Noodle leads about the Ass

To such as please to buy them ;
Such Folks as these can never be

Com par 'd to Royal J — m — y,
Who is our true and lawful King ;

I hope ere long he'll see me.

Jacobite Songs 253

Potatoes are a Dainty Dish,

And Turnips now are springing,
When J — m — s our K — g does come home,

We will set the Bells a-ringing.
We'll take the old Whelp by the Snout

And lead him down to Dover,
Then pop him in his Leathern Boat

And send him to H — n — r.

The British Lyon then shall Tear

The Found red Horse of B[ru]n[swic]k,
And G — ge for want of better Nagg

Shall ride upon a Broomstick.
Such hags as those in Cavalcade

Shall carry down to Dover,
His MALE AND FEMALE CONCUBINES,

And ship 'em for H — n — r.

AN EXCELLENT NEW BALLAD
To the Tune ofy i A Begging we will go,' etc.

I am a Turnip Ho-er,

As good as ever ho'd ;
I have hoed from my Cradle,
And reap'd where I ne'er sow'd.

And a Ho-ing I will go, etc.
For my Turnips I must Hoe.

With a Hoe for myself,

And another for my Son ;
A Third too for my Wife —

But Wives I've two, or None.

And a Ho-ing we will go, etc.

At Brunswick and Hanover
I learned the Ho-ing Trade;

From thence I came to England, where
A strange Hoe I have made.

And a Ho-ing we will go, etc.

I've pillag'd Town and Country round,
And no Man durst say, No ;

I've lop'd off Heads, like Turnip-tops,
Made England cry, High ! Ho !

And a Ho-ing I will go, etc.

Of all Trades in my Country,
A Hoer is the Best ;

254 C. H. Firth

For when his Turnips he has ho'd,
On a Turnip he can Feast.

And a Ho-ing I will go, etc.

A Turnip once, we read, was

A Present for a Prince ;
And all the German Princes have

Ho'd Turnips ever since.

And a Ho-ing I will go, etc.

Let Trumpets cheer the Soldier,
And Fiddles charm the Beau ;

But sure 'tis much more Princely, to
Cry ' Turnips, Turnips, Ho ' !

And a Ho-ing I will go, etc.

With Iron-headed Hoes, let
Dull Britons Hoe their Corn :

But of all Hoes, give me a Hoe,
For Turnips, tip'd with Horn.

And a Ho-ing I will go, etc.

If Britons will be Britons still,

And horny Heads affront ;
I'll carry Home both Heads and Horns,

And Hoe where I was wont.

And a Ho-ing I will go, etc.

To Hannover I'll go, I'll go,

And there I'll mery be ;
With a good Hoe in my right Hand,

And Munster on my Knee.

And a Ho-ing I will go, etc.

Come on, my Turks and Germans,

Pack up, pack up, and go,
Let J s take his Scepter,

So I can have my Hoe.

And a Ho-ing we will go, etc.

POEM ON MR. PAUL

The Man that fell by Faction's Strife,
In Mournful Notes I Sing ;

Who bravely Sacrific'd his Life,
To serve his Church and King.

A Subject, Priest, and Patriot he,
For Church, King, Country brave ;

Jacobite Songs 255

Chose rather thus to Murder'd be,
Than see their Rights Enslav'd.

He strove for their Invaded State,

From Brunswick's curst Arrival ;
Who proves their Emblem of ill Fate,

In Noll's and Will's Revival.

Behold I touch the Mournful Lyre,

Whose gentle Strings Impart,
(As first my Grief did them inspire)

Their Trembling to my Heart.

My Muse, all wreath'd in baleful Yew,

No Laurel Green shall wear ;
Thus is England's falling Church to me,

Whilst Whiggs the Triumph bear.

Townshend and Wake that drew him in,

His Errors to recall ;
Now like malicious Serpents, grin,

And Triumph in his Fall.

Deceit may Townshend's Nature be ;

' In Wake, 'tis Gain's Creation,
'Cause, like the Crown, his Holy See,
Is but an Usurpation.

Tho' Paul in Fear did thus Recant,

Having his King deny'd ;
Like Peter, he return'd the Saint,

And an Apostle Dy'd.

And tho' Abjuring Oaths he took,

To our Usurping Tarter ;
Like Saul the Cause he thus forsook,

To be like Paul the Martyr.

His Dying Words with Truth did Shine ;

Himself, he did desire,
Should be his Monumental Shrine,

On every Church's Spire.

From thence, tho' Dead, he'd still relate,

For Faith his Life Surrender ;
By Mercy of its Guardian State,

And Merciful Defender.

And if the Sun had chanc'd to taint,

And chang'd him Black to view ;
Still their dark Deeds he'd Represent,

In Ecciesiastick Hue.

256 C. H. Firth

His Arch the Skies had then become,
Stars deckt him with their Train,

And Air had been his Sacred Tomb,
Embalm'd in Tears of Rain.

His Death, as we a Glory own,

Whiggs love to Church is reckon'd ;

Whilst he shall by the Style be known,
Of Great St. Paul his Second.

THE PETITION
To the Tune of, l Which no Body can deny.'

To you, German Sir, a Petition I bring,

Tho' I, Heav'ns know, am a poor wooden Thing,

And you're but a poor wooden Tool, call'd a King,

Which no Body can deny, etc.

My Name it is Tyburn, let not that alarm ye,

For Cause there is good you shou'd do somewhat for me,

Since I've slain you more Foes than your whole Standing Army.

Now, 'tis no great Matter for which I do sue,

For my whole and my sole Application to you,

Is for nothing but what has long since been my due.

Your Gen'rals I claim, whether old Ones or New,

Those that wear your Green Ribbands, and those that wear Blue,

For I've a String better than either o' th' Two.

Old Marlborough first, that renown'd Treason-monger,
I demand as the fittest to lead up the Throng there,
He has cheated me long, but shall cheat me no longer.

Nor let it be deem'd any Shame to his Race,

For so high-born a Peer to be brought to this Place,

For I've had many better Men here than his Grace.

Your Aylmers and Byngs, and your Admirals round,
Are destin'd by Fate, all to die on dry Ground,
For not a Man of 'em all was born to be drown'd.

Your new-lorded Stanhope to my Quarters send,
Who looks not i' the Face either of Foe or of Friend,
For he'd rather by half they would shew t'other end.

There's Townshend and Walpole, those Birds of a Feather,

Who side with both Parties, yet care not for either,

As they've done all their Lives, let 'em now hang together.

Jacobite Songs 257

Old Sunderland's Son is a man of great Fire,

And therefore I'll tie him a Knot or two higher,

He shall pay off his own Scores, and those of his Sire.

Send Cowper to me, and I'll soon put him out
Of all manner of Pain, be it Pox, Stone, or Gout,
As sure as his Brother did poor Sarah Stout.

Without Bail or Mainprize your Chief Justice dispatch,
To my Trusty and Well-belov'd Cousin, 'Squire Ketch,
As he stretches the Law, a Hempcord let him stretch.

To my Brother in Ireland, o' th' same Occupation,

I'll give Lord Cadogan a Recommendation,

For his Grandsire's sake (once Jack Ketch o' th' Nation).

To Pelham, that blust'ring Head of the Many,
I've nothing to say, but shall leave the poor Zany
For's own Mob to knock out his Brains, if h'as any.

Those Episcopal Fathers of Presbyter Strain,

Who are fed by the Church, yet its Altars prophane,

I'll consign to my Chaplain, the good Paul Lorrain.

As concerning your Germans there needs no harranguing,

But what I beg is, that you'd send 'em all ganging

To the Place whence they came, for they're hardly worth hanging.

For hating the Prince, you unnatural Elf,

For kicking him out, like no Son of a Guelph :

For all these good Reasons, pray go hang up your Self!

' Do but grant this Petition, and God save the King !

* While I stand on three Legs, I'll sing, hey ding a ding,

* For I've got all the World, when I've You in a String.'

The Scottish Islands in the Diocese of Sodor

TWENTY-ONE years ago Mr. A. W. Moore, the late Speaker
of the House of Keys, published in the English Historical
Review1 a bull of Pope Gregory IX. of 3Oth July, 1231,
enumerating the possessions of the Bishop of Sodor. It is well-
known that the names of foreign places often appear in strange
disguises when transcribed by the clerks of the papal chancery ;
and in this particular instance new elements of distortion have
been introduced by the facts that the document is only preserved
in a modern copy belonging to the Bishop of Sodor and Man,
which was made by an ignorant scribe about 1600, and that this
copy is badly torn. Still, it has been possible to restore a
coherent text with but few lacunae, and of these only two affect
the place-names to which it is the object of the present paper to
call attention.

The document runs as follows :

Gregorius2 episcopus, servus servorum Dei, venerabili fratri Simoni,
episcopo3 Sodorensi,4 suisque successoribus canonice substituendis 6 [In
perpetuuni\.

In eminent!6 apostolicae scdis specula,7 licet8 immeriti, disponente
Domino, constituti, fratres nostros episcopos,9 tarn propinquos, quam longe

1Vol. v. 101-107, 1890.

2 In the following text, words and letters which are missing in the original owing
to the mutilated condition of the manuscript are supplied within square brackets.
Additions which have nothing to correspond to them in the original are further
distinguished by italic type, as [In perpetuum]. In the manuscript, diphthongs,
when not occurring in an abbreviated syllable, are generally expressed by the
simple vowel. I have made a few alterations in the text from that printed in
1 890, for which my friend Mr. W. H. Stevenson and I were jointly responsible.
The form supplied in the Liber cancellariae apostolicae, edited by G. Erler (Leipzig,
1888), has been of service in emending the document.

*Eipco,MS. *Sodorenc\ MS.; and so throughout. *> Substitutis, MS.

6 In iumentum, MS. "* Spectacula, MS.

8 Licett, MS., and so throughout, but not invariably, in the cases of ett,fuerittt
interveniatty liceatt, nequiveritt, poteritt, prasumatt, suatt, utt, veil, &c.

9 Epischopos, MS. ; the ch appearing wherever the word episcopus or archiepiscopus
is written in full.

The Diocese of Sodor 259

positos,10 fraterna debemus charitate diligere, et ecclesiis ll sibi a Deo corn-
missis pastorali solicitudine 12 providere. Quocirca, venerabilis frater in
Christo episcope,13 tuis iustis postulationibus \clementer annuimus}^ et ecclesiam
cathedralem sancti Garmani Sodorensis in insula Euboniae (iam Manniae)
vocata, cui, auctore Deo, praeesse dignosceris, sub beati Petri et nostra pro-
tectione suscipimus,14 et praesentis scripti 16 privilegio communimus ; l6
statuentes, ut quascunque 17 possessiones, quaecunque bona eadem ecclesia in
praesentiarum iuste18 et canonice possidet, aut in futurum concessione
pontificum, largitione regum, principum, vel dominorum, oblatione fidelium,
seu aliis iustis modis, praestante Domino, poterit adip[/]sci, firma tibi tuisque
successoribus et illibata permaneant. In quibus haec propriis duximus ex-
perimenda vocabulis : locum ipsum Holme, Sodor, vel Pile vocatum, in
qu[o] praefata cathedralis ecclesia sita est, et ecclesiam sancti Patricii de
Insula, cum omnibus et singulis ecclesiarum praedictarum commoditatibus,
libertatib[us], pertin[entiisque~\ 19 pleno iure spectantibus ; tertiamque
pattern omnium decimarum de omnibus ecclesiis in praedicta insula Euboniae
vel Manniae constitutis, et de Bothe, de Aran, de Eya, de He, de lurye, de
Scarpey, de Elath, de Col[vansey], de Muley, de Chorhye, de Cole, de
Ege, de Skey, de Carrey, de R[ . . . ], et de Howas, de insulis Alne, de
Swostersey et episcoporum h[ . . . ] ; ac etiam terras in insula praedicta,
videlicet et de Holmetowen, [de] Glenfaba,20 de Fotysdeyn, de Bally-
more, de Brottby, de baculo sanc[ti] Patricii,21 de Knokcrolcer, de Ballicure,
de Ballibruste,22 de Jourbye, [de] Ballicaine,23 de Ramsey ; terras etiam
ecclesiae sanctae24 Trinitatis in Leay[re], sanctae Mariae 25 de Ballalaughe,
sancti Maughaldi, et sancti Michaelis adiacentes ; 26 et terras sancti Bradani27
et de Kyrkbye, de Kyrkemarona, de Colusshill, terramque sancti Columbae28
Herbery vocatam. Ad haec, cimiteria ecclesiarum et ecclesiastica beneficia
nullus iure hereditario possideat ; quod si quis praesumpserit, censura ecclesi-
astica vel canonica compescatur.29 Praeterea,30 quod communi assensu
capituli31 tui, vel partis concilii sanioris, in tua dioecesi32 per te vel per
successores tuos fuerit canonice institutum, ratum et firmum volumus per-
manere. Prohibemus insuper, ne excommunicatos vel interdictos ad officium
vel communionem ecclesiasticam sine conscientia et consensu tuo quisquam33
admittat, aut34 contra sententiam \tuam\ canonice promulgatam aliquis venire
praesumat, nisi forte periculum mortis immineat, aut35 dum praesentiam
tuam habere nequiverit, per alium secundum formam ecclesiae satisfactione
praemissa oporteat ligatum36 absolvi. Sacrorum quoque37 canonum auctori-
tatem sequentes ^ statuimus, ut nullus episcopus vel archiepiscopus, absque

l°Positas, MS. u Eccletiis, MS., and so throughout ; but ecclesiastica.

™ Solisitudine, MS. ™ Epo, MS. 14 Suscepimus, MS. ™ Script, MS.

l6Comunius, MS. 17 Quecunyue, MS. ™lusti, MS. ig£fim, MS.

20 G/«w*&», MS. n-Patracii, MS. ™ BaWbrushe, MS.

23 Ballicaime, MS. 24 Eccletiam sanctam, MS. 25 Sane 'tarn Mariam, MS.

26 Adiacentis, MS. 27 Bradarni, MS. 28 Columba, MS.

** Comprestat, MS. ** Pretoria, MS. ^Capitali, MS.

zzDioctcis, MS. ; where the word is always spelled with c in the last syllable.

83 Quisque, MS. 34 Ac, MS. 35 Ac, MS.

36 Ligatum] gdtu, MS. 87 Sacrarorumque, MS. 88 Seyuentis, MS.

260 Reginald L. Poole

Sodorensis episcopi consensu,39 conventus celebrare, causas etiam40 vel
ecclesiastica negotia in Sodoren[w] dioecesi, nisi 41 per Romanum pontificem
vcl [eiui] legatum fuerit eidem ini[unc]tum, tractare praesumat ; in ecclesiis
quoque Sodorensis dioecesis, quae ad ali[os] pleno42 iure non pertinent,43
nullum clericum instituere vel destituere vel sacerdotem proficere44 sine con-
sensu dioecesani praesumat. Statuimus etiam, ut in electionibus episcoporum
successorum tuorum nulla vis, nulla potentia regis vel principis interveniat ;
nee in praemissione episcoporum quisque officium praelationis ecclesiasticae
obtineat, sed ille vacanti praeficiatur ecclesiae quem illi, ad quos electio de
iure pertinere dignoscitur, scientia et moribus iudicaveri[«]t aptiorem, forma
canon ica in electione servata. Clericos etiam et tenentes tuos tuae 46 dioe-
cesis debite volentes libertate gaudere districtius prohibemus, ne rex vel
princeps aut dominus eos exactionibus indebitis aggravare praesumat.

Decernimus ^ ergo, ut nulli omnino 47 hominum liceat praefatam ecclesiam
temere perturbare, aut eius possessiones vel libertates auferre, vel ablatas
retinere, minuere, seu quibuslibet vexationibus fatigare, sed omnia integra
conserventur eorum pro quorum \_sustentatione ei\ gubernatione concessa
sunt, usibus omnimodis profutura,48 salva sedis apostolicae auctoritate. Si
qua igitur in futurum ecclesiastica secularisve persona, hanc nostrae constitu-
tionis paginam sciens, contra earn temere venire temptaverit, secundo
tertiove commonita, nisi49 reatum suum congrua satisfactione correxerit,
potestatis et honoris sui careat dignitate, rea[w]que se divino iudicio60
existere de perpetrata in[/]quitate cognoscat, et a sacratissimo corpore et
sanguine Dei et Domini Redemptoris nostri lesu 61 Christi aliena fiat, atque
in extreme examine districtae subiaceat ultioni. Cunctis autem [<?]idem
loco suo iura servantibus, sit pax Domini 52 nostri lesu Christi, quatenus et 63
hie64 fructum bonae actionis percipiant65 et apud districtum ludicem
praemium aeternae pacis invenia[»]t. Amen.66

Datum Reatas,67 tertio kalendas Augusti, Indictione quarta, incarnationis
Dominicae anno millesimo M cc° xxxi° et pontificatus nostri anno quinto.59

The bull deals first with the site of the bishopric ; secondly
with the bishop's third of all tithes in the Isle of Man and in a
number of islands named ; and thirdly with a series of properties
in the Isle of Man. All the places in the Isle of Man except
Fotysdeyn and Colusshill were identified by Mr. Moore, but he
did not profess to examine very closely the names of the Scottish
islands which lay outside his immediate line of interest. The
lands in the Isle of Man are enumerated in a promiscuous order

^Concenstt, MS. ^ Eccletiam, MS. 41 Nisi] nuper, MS. ^Plene, MS.
** Pertineantt, MS. ** Projicere, MS. 4*T&c, MS. * Secrevimus, MS.

47 Omnino] amb (?), MS. « MS. inserts et. *9Nisi] in, MS.

**Domo iuditio, MS. «/*/«, MS. **Dei, MS. 53 [///, MS.

54 MS. adds in. 55 Principiant, MS. 56 Amen\ anno. MS.

57 Romae, MS. 58 Millecimo, MS.

59 The bull is endorsed in the handwriting of Bishop Wilson : ' Popes Bull
granted to the Bishop for his Thirds, &c. in this Island, &c. Anno 1231.'

The Diocese of Sodor 261

without regard to their geographical relations ; and Mr. Moore
seems to have thought that the Western Isles were similarly
unarranged, for he conjectured ' Eya,' which is mentioned between
' Aran ' and ' He,' to be lona.60 I venture, however, to hold that
the document starts at any rate with a nearly regular enumeration
of the islands following the coast as near as may be from south
to north. Thus we have Bothe (Bute), Aran (Arran), Eya
(Gigha), Ik (Islay), Jurye (Jura), Scarpey (Scarba), Elath (Elach-
nave, the southern of the Garvelach group),61 Co/\vansey] (Colon-
say), Muley (Mull), Chorhye (apparently Tiree), Cole (Col), Egc
(Eigg), Skey, Carrey (Canna), £[...] (Rum). Of these the
identification of Chorhye with Tiree alone presents difficulties,
though it is possible — if hardly probable — that the initial R may
indicate Raasey rather than Rum. The remaining four names on
the other hand are an enigma,

de Howas, de insulis Alne, de Swostersey, et episcoporum h[. . . ].

These should naturally designate the Hebrides ; but I leave to
scholars more skilled in Scottish nomenclature than I can profess
to be, to expound the true names which are here concealed
through a double process of mistranscription.

REGINALD L. POOLE.

[The Editor has shown proofs of the above paper to two or three
contributors to the Scottish Historical Review^ and has received the follow-
ing notes :

Dr. Maitland Thomson says, It is indeed a pity that so interesting a
document is preserved only in so corrupt a form.

It seems to me that your learned correspondent's identifications may well
be accepted up to ' Skey ' inclusive, which is as much as to accept his theory
that the islands are arranged in fairly regular geographical order. If that is
so, one would expect, after Skye, the ' Long Island,' that is (according to
the medieval nomenclature) Barra, Uist and Lewis ; Benbecula being
reckoned part of Uist and Harris of Lewis.

I therefore suggest that Barra, ' the Barey of the Sagas,' has been mis-
copied Carrey ; and that Howas is miswritten for Liowns, Lewis (' the
Ljodthhus of the Sagas') ; the lost intermediate word would be Uist, in the
Sagas luist, which it would not be difficult to miscopy into Ruist.

60 Dr. James Wilson and Sir Archibald Lawrie kindly point out that lona was
entirely unconnected with the See of Sodor, being under the immediate jurisdiction
of the Pope.

61 Cf. C. Innes, Origins parochiaks Scotiae, ii. (1854), 277.

262 Reginald L. Poole

But if that is so, the three remaining names must be an odd lot, and
topographical situation no guide to their identification. So it is difficult to
frame any guesses which are better than any other guesses. Alne is not
far from Ufoa ; Swostersey looks very Norse — if it can mean Sister's Isle, it
may be Inchkenneth, which seems to have been the chief possession of the
Nuns of lona. The remaining insula episcoporum h may be lona if any
reason can be given for giving it that name — but I hardly think it was ever
a Bishop's seat (except casually in Celtic times) till the final division of the
Scottish and English Sees of Sodor. It is to be observed that in the Sixteenth
Century Rental of the Bishopric of the Isles (in Collectanea de Rebus
Albanicis] it is expressly noted that the Bishop had not a third of the
parsonage of Icolmkill, and this privilege may be very ancient.

Sir Archibald Lawrie says, It is, I think, certain that the Kings of
Norway in the eleventh and twelfth centuries claimed every one of the
islands on the West Coast of Scotland.

The tradition was that King Magnus in 1098, to add to the number of
his possessions, sat in a boat which was dragged across the isthmus of
Tarbert to prove that Kintyre was an island.

The Kings of Norway in the next century recognised the power of the
Kings of the Isles, and in 1166, when King Henry II. of England met
King William of Scotland at Mont St. Michel, there came there the
Bishop of Man and the Isles, who told Robert de Torigneio (then the
Abbot of St. Michel) that the King of the Isles held Man and thirty-one
other islands under the King of Norway on condition of paying on the
accession of each King of Norway ten marks of gold.62

An interesting question is whether lona was one of the islands held by
the King of the Isles under Norway and whether the Bishop of Man
and the Isles had any episcopal rights or derived any revenue from the
church of lona.

It is probable that the Kings of Norway claimed lona and that the Bishop
of Trondhjem and afterwards the Kings and Bishops of Man pretended that
it lay within their diocese and jurisdiction, but it is almost certain that such
a claim was not acknowledged. The old church of lona was closely
connected with Ireland, and as late as 1164 the Annals of Ulster record
an event which Haddan and Stubbs describe as an ineffectual attempt to
reunite lona and the Irish church.63

The meaning of the passage is not clear to me, but it seems certain that
the churchmen of lona looked to Ireland and not to Man as the seat of
ecclesiastical authority.

In addition to claims by the Irish church and by the Bishop of Man
there was a claim by the Bishop of Dunkeld, a Bishopric which long
asserted interests and rights in the church of lona.

Towards the end of the twelfth century King William granted to the
Abbey of Holyrood the churches in Galloway on the mainland of Scotland

62 Robert de Torigneio, Rolls Ed. vol. iv. p. 228.

63 Haddan and Stubbs, v.a. 2, p. 235 ; Chron. Picts and Scots, p. 372 ; dnnals of
Malcolm and William, p. 89.

The Diocese of Sodor 263

which had belonged to the church of lona, and about the same time a new
Cluniac monastery and nunnery were founded in lona.

In this competition for episcopal jurisdiction over it the Abbots of lona
were recognised by the Pope as exempt from episcopal supervision and as
owing subjection to Rome only.

During the War of Independence in the beginning of the fourteenth
century the Scottish king created a new Bishopric of the Isles apart from
that of Man.

Years afterwards, to make a revenue for the Bishop of the Isles, the office
of Abbot of lona was practically suppressed, the Bishop was made the
commendator, the two prelacies remained combined till the Reformation.
The Abbey Church of lona became the Cathedral of the diocese of the
Isles. Before that (if the Bishop had a cathedral) it was the Church of
Rothesay.

In 1561 it is recorded that while the Bishop of the Isles had a third of
many benefices in the Isles which had belonged to lona, he had not a third
of Icolumkil, the revenue of that benefice belonged to him as Abbot or
Commendator, not as Bishop.

The Rev. Principal Lindsay writes, May not Howas be Howse, which
was the name of the chief parish in South Uist in 1594? Mr. Donald
Monro, High Dean of the Isles, who travelled through the Hebrides in
1594, in his Description of the Western hies refers to Howse under Island
154.

Might not Swostersey be Wattersay, the southmost of the two clusters
of islands which were said to belong to the Bishop of lona, one called
the Bishop's Isles consisting of several small islands on the east and south
of Barra, and the other nine islands surrounding Skye on the north and
west sides ? Of these Wattersay was the southmost of the second of these
two groups. See also Suilskeray, No. 209, in Monro's list of Islands.

Can Elath be Veliche, Island No. 17 in Monro's list, where it is
described as * Niarest the iyle of Skarbay layes any iyle, called in Erish
Elian Veliche, unto the northeist ' ?

The Editor would be glad to receive any suggestions which may throw
light on the points raised by Mr. Reginald Poole.]

Scottish Burgh Records

THE Scottish commonwealth has been well served by the
archivists who have with such diligence and success
given themselves to the transliteration of burghal records, with
a determined will —

To ken all the crafte how the case felle
By lookyng of letters that left were of old.

It was in 1868 that the first volume of the Burgh Records
Society's publications appeared under the editorship of Professor
Cosmo Innes. Sir James Marwiclc was for nearly forty years
editorially identified with the volumes of this invaluable series,
and since his death the transition has only by degrees been
made to Mr. Renwick, who has proved himself a most loyal
literary executor and the only possible successor to Sir James.
The association of the two was a happy circumstance for the
Society. So much depends on the intimate knowledge of the
records dealt with that the archivist's share in the product

Extracts from the Records of the Burgh of Glasgow, A.D. 1691-1717. [Edited
by the late Sir James D. Marwick, LL.D., and Robert Renwick.] Cr. 410.
Pp. xvii, 719. Glasgow : Printed for the Scottish Burgh Records Society, 1908.

The River Clyde and the Clyde Burghs. The City of Glasgow and its Old Relations
with Rutherglen, Renfrew, Paisley, Dumbarton, Port-Glasgow, Greenock, Rothesay, and
Irvine. By the late Sir James D. Marwick, LL.D. Cr. 410. Pp. x, 254.
Glasgow, 1909.

Edinburgh Guilds and Crafts : A Sketch of the History of Burgess-ship, Guild-brother-
hood, and Member ship of Crafts in the City. By the late Sir James D. Marwick, LL.D.
Cr. 410. Pp. vii, 258. Edinburgh, 1909.

Extracts from the Records of the Burgh of Glasgow, 1718-38: with Charters and
other Documents, 1708-38. [Edited by Robert Renwick.] Cr. 410. Pp. xxx, 621.
Glasgow, 1909.

The Ancient Laws and Customs of the Burghs of Scotland. Vol. II., 1424-1707.
[Edited by Robert Renwick.] Cr. 410. Pp. xxxi, 195. Edinburgh, 1910.

Extracts from the Records of the Burgh of Peebles, 1652-1714. With appendix,
1367-1665. [Edited by Robert Renwick.] Pp. xxiii, 235. Glasgow, 1910.

Scottish Burgh Records 265

includes the selection of the matter, and is the chief element
in shaping the editorial narrative and commentary.

The vast increase in knowledge of Glasgow's history must
be credited, it goes without saying, to Mr. Renwick, whose
Glasgow Protocols, not second to the Burgh Record volumes
themselves, are a quarry of precise local topography and
biography of the sixteenth century such as scarcely any city
in the United Kingdom can rival.

The preface to the Extracts from Glasgow Records \ 1691-1717,
begins with an emphatic recognition and homage. * In one
capacity or another,' says Mr. Renwick, ' I have had the great
privilege of being associated with Sir James Marwick in the
work of the Society since its formation, and having been
specially conjoined with him in the preparation of this volume,
the loss of my revered friend, the memory of whose unfailing
kindness to myself must ever remain with me a treasured
possession, has laid on me the duty of completing the book.'

During the period covered by the selection of Extracts the
Union of 1707 and the Jacobite rising of 1715 were the great
public facts of history. Yet it is significant of burghal life and
record that neither event engrosses much attention in the pro-
ceedings of the town council. In 1706 the tumult caused by
the anti-Union populace stoning the council-house led to a
proclamation by tuck of drum for the mustering in arms of
* the haill fencible men of this burgh ' to put down any
disturbance. A detachment of troops from Edinburgh settled
the rioters, but the incident, which bulks so largely in Defoe, is
not recorded in the town's minutes at all.

The community was divided about the Union. On the
Jacobite question in 1715, on the other hand, there was no
division. Glasgow stood firm by the house of Hanover,
sending assurances of loyalty to King George in the face * of a
designed invasion from abroad in favour of a Papal Pretender
and of the preparations of a restless Papal and Jacobite faction
at home for subverting our happy constitution in church and
state.' The city further sent 500 of its militia to recruit the
royal forces. Other reminiscences of * this tyme of common
danger' appear in the pious and partly executed purpose
whereby 'the toun should be put in a better posture of
defence by drawing lynes of entrinchment about the toun in
case of ane attack,' and in the confinement of 353 * rebell
prisoners' under guard in the castle prison in December, 1715.

266 Geo. Neilson

A highly interesting ' accompt of the extraordinary charge
and expenses' from July, 1715, until October, 1716, details the
carriage of ' great guns/ the powder horns for priming them,
the cartridge boxes, the leaden cannon balls, the messages sent
to raise the alarm or to bring ' accounts of the Pretender,' the
hire of horses, the building of barricades of stone, * divets,'
up-cast earth and timber, and a mighty digging of trenches by
militiamen and colliers cheered at their work by liberal allowance
of drink. Barricades and trenches at Gallowgate, Glasshouse,
Cowloan, and St. Tennoch's Bridge, Buns Wynd, Rottenrow,
Deneside, and the Merchants' Hospital are particularly mentioned.
Extensive work at Kirkintilloch Bridge, too, shows that the scheme
of defence was not limited to the city confines. Gunpowder (at a
cost of over £1000), firelocks, bayonets, drums, halberts, and 'a
feild carriage for a cannon for the toun ' are items of charge which
attest that the city stood well to its guns.

One adventure of interest before the rebellion broke out was
the seizure, among innocent chests and barrels, in a boat at the
Broomielaw, of 32 firelocks, 32 pistols, and 21 fspeir bayonets'
destined for ' nonjurors and disafected persons in the High-
lands.' The thoroughgoing preparations made to repel the
Pretender explain the unusual emphasis of the Act of Parlia-
ment in 1716 granting to Glasgow a duty of two pence Scots
per pint of ale and beer in recognition of the c most cordial
and cheerful manner ' in which the city had acted in the crisis.

The Extracts for 1718-38 cover two decades of much less
public excitement in which the occurrences steadily grow more
prosaic and find more modern phrases to record them. But
there is still abundance of interest, and it is pleasant to note in
the proceedings what Mr. Renwick calls * the advent of our
earliest local historian.' In 1732 the minutes bear that 'John
M'Ure, writter, has compiled a book intitled The Ancient and
Moddern State of Glasgow which he is to cause print,' but his
petition for a * gratification ' towards defraying his expenses
seems to have proved ineffectual to evoke a money grant, not-
withstanding his work being dedicated to the Provost, Town
Council and Town Clerk. M'Ure guessed the population then
to be 30,000, an estimate nearly doubling the figure Mr. Renwick
thinks probable.

There was progress in commerce, manufactories, and general
industries, but it was slow. Political unrest can hardly have
counted for much among the conditions that clogged advance.

Scottish Burgh Records 267

The malt tax riot, in which Shawfield House was sacked in 1725,
was a symptom of discontent with the Union. A false alarm of
Jacobite invasion in 1727 led to the drawing up of another fervid
address of loyalty and unalterable adherence to his ' sacred
Majesties person family and government.' At the heart of these
records the purely local concerns continued dominant, but trading
policy in general was watched with a very intelligent eye. Scottish
rights in the tobacco traffic were jealously guarded, linen manu-
facture was promoted, and the attention paid to the development
of Port-Glasgow reveals both ambition and practical grasp in the
business section of the city.

Shipping with the Plantations of America had already, in 1723,
reached dimensions respectable enough with '20 or 30 sail of
ships every year laden with tobacco and sugar,' and in 1726
Defoe reported ' near 50 sail of ships every year to Virginia,
New England, and other English colonies in America.' A set of
ordinances for Port-Glasgow harbour, provisions for its repair,
* the strenth and decorement thereof,' and the building of a dry
dock and a new quay, are as clear intimations of enterprise as
the slightly earlier construction of another new quay at the
Broomielaw.

Sir James Marwick's historical study of the Clyde and the
Clyde burghs was printed in proof in 1906, but was still under
revision at his death, and has been editorially completed and
brought out by Mr. Renwick. A conspectus of burghal develop-
ments on the firth, it is characterised by the familiar features of
the veteran author's workmanship. It shows his persistent
method of linking the facts with the minimum of general state-
ment, his fidelity to the authorities duly cited for every paragraph,
and his customary success in constructing a connected history
which for its accuracy, fulness, and variety in matter of chronicle
and fact must for long remain an authority and standard for
reference.

The absence of colour and the toning down of quaint phrase
and incident are deliberate. Sir James's choice was an unhesitat-
ing preference to be a solid builder of facts rather than an artist
in narrative or a historical painter. It is this quality, his unbend-
ing cult of the authentic and his virtual contempt for the
decorative region beyond, that makes the enduring value of his
writings. He spared no pains to get his information, and his
art was to rely on his truth as his abiding virtue. That Sir James
never in his writing broke the calm of the plain historiographer,

268 Geo. Neilson

never showed himself, as he often was in his conversation,
vehement and almost passionate in his argument or narrative, is
perhaps a proof of his severe conception of the task of the
historian and the restraint in which he kept his pen.

To set Glasgow into its surroundings, burghally considered,
was the purpose of a study which grouped, contrasted, compared,
and analysed the ports of the Clyde. Rutherglen was a fully
royal burgh under David I. So, perhaps, was Renfrew, but if so
the dignity was lost by the grant to Walter, the first of the
Stewarts, which made the burgh baronial only, so that not until
1397 did Renfrew, by the charter of Robert III., acquire the full
burghal status.

Paisley, only made a burgh of barony in 1488, and then
subject to the abbot as Glasgow was to the bishop, remained
baronial until 1658. In that year an arrangement with the
abbot's lay-successor as Superior, procured the granting of a
Crown charter in 1665, which (in spite of objection by
Dumbarton) gave it a tenure under the Prince and Steward of
Scotland which was some degrees short of the dignity of a royal
burgh, not even yet included among the many claims of Paisley
to historical distinction.

Dumbarton, which alone rivals Glasgow for institutional
interest and for its importance in maritime annals, was chartered
as a royal burgh about the year 1221, and long disputed the
dominance of Glasgow over the Clyde.

On the other hand, Port-Glasgow, on lands acquired by the
city of Glasgow in 1668 for a harbour (whence its original name
of Newport) began its separate life in 1690 under a Bailie of the
Newport having the powers of a baron bailie appointed by and
subject to the instructions of the magistrates of Glasgow ; and it
was only in 1775 tnat Parliament gave it a police constitution,
raised after the Reform Act to that of a Parliamentary burgh.

Greenock came into existence as a baronial burgh in 1635 in
the teeth of objection by both Glasgow and Dumbarton ; its
magistrates were baron bailies ; it never was a royal burgh.

Rothesay had its charter from King Robert III. in 1401, and
its freedom as a royal burgh was confirmed by James VI.

Irvine, created a burgh by Alexander II. and confirmed by
Robert I. in 1322, was in early times used as the port of Glasgow,
and as such was long in close commercial relationship with the city.
These are the eight burghs with which Glasgow's interconnection
is the subject of Sir James's study. Curiously enough the

Scottish Burgh Records 269

cathedral city itself, although vested with practically every
liberty of a royal burgh long before, only reached full burghal
status in 1611, and even then remained subject to reservation
regarding the election of magistrates — the last privilege of burghal
autonomy finally granted only in 1690 by William and Mary,
grateful for the part which Glasgow had played in furthering the
Revolution.

Long before that, however, it had acquired a complete pre-
eminence over all its neighbours, and become a centre of political,
commercial, and manufacturing influence. This gradual growth
is well shown by the combined annals which Sir James has
compiled, tracing year by year and collating the progress or
activities of each of the ports. Too chary of indicating general
causes, he yet by the particular episodes illustrates the force
of special features, whether of situation, equipment and resources,
or of personal enterprise in the inhabitants, which after long
struggle, against some by no means impotent rivalry, established
the place of Glasgow as capital of the Clyde.

For centuries Glasgow was well provided with grievances in the
oppressive action of some one or other burgh. At first Rutherglen
and Dumbarton pressed it hard, and all the court-influence of the
bishops was needed to check claims of toll and infringements of
exemptions on the river and at the markets. Renfrew took a
hand in the game too, although obviously foredoomed to futility.
Only one rival seems conceivable to us now, and we may still
ask how the golden apple of mercantile and maritime supremacy
fell to Glasgow and not to Dumbarton. Long the premier
harbour of the west coast of Scotland, Dumbarton started with
that high natural advantage in the race ; but it had only one side
of the firth and stood on the edge of the mountains. Glasgow
was in the plain, the river was fordable there, and great roads
branched from it : later the bridge set it astride of the river ;
it counted as a port in the beginnings of shipping, and the
foresight and energy of its citizens enabled it by engineering
science to redress the balance of nature against its inland site — a
work which extends back to the sixteenth century. The modern
phase, however, began in 1759 with the first of the Clyde Trust
acts ; the twenty-seventh act was about to be passed when the
' Lusitania * was launched in 1906.

If Sir James gives his emphasis to Glasgow he not less patiently
traces the fortunes of the humbler burghs. Inveraray, raised to
the rank of royal burgh in 1649, ^s noticed among the others :

270 Geo. Neilson

the only one of ancient interest we miss in Sir James's survey is
Tarbert, which Robert I. made a burgh, though its honours have
not survived. Hamilton (burgh of barony in 1456, chartered as
a royal burgh 1548) scarcely appears at all; its erection into a
royal burgh was practically abortive, and it subsequently again
accepted the inferior status of a burgh of regality.

How Clyde shipping was affected by the development of the
Plantations of America and the ocean traffic dating from that
period, how the Navigation Acts operated, and how Glasgow
ships played their part in the long duel with England in the
seventeenth century over wool and linen smuggled to Holland or
across the Atlantic — these are matters of economic history which
Sir James was reluctant to make his province.

The work on Edinburgh Guilds and Crafts was printed more
than thirty years ago, but was then left in proof, and makes its
posthumous appearance under the editorial executorship of Mr.
Renwick. It is an exhaustive sketch of the privileges and
obligations of burgess-ship and guild brotherhood in Edinburgh,
copious in authoritative quotations from the Town Council
records. Seals of cause, the symbol of incorporation, came greatly
into vogue in the last quarter of the fifteenth century. The
Hatmakers received theirs from the Town Council in 1473,
the Skinners in 1474, the Masons and Wrights in 1475, an<^ ^e
Websters in 1476, followed by the Hammermen 1483, Fleshers
1488, Coopers 1489, Waulkers and Tailors 1500, Surgeons
and Barbers 1505, Cordiners 1510, and Candlemakers in 1517.
The Baxters having lost their seal had it renewed in 1523.

Certain guilds were specially associated with certain altars in
the church of St. Giles, the altar of St. John being maintained by
the Masons, that of St. Severane by the Websters, that of St.
Mark by the Waulkers, that of St. Crispin by the Cordiners,
and that of St. Ann by the Tailors. Indeed, the connection in
Edinburgh between the crafts and the church are conspicuous
enough to reflect light on the vexed question for the guild
brotherhoods, whether the craft guilds as general institutions in
Great Britain had not often their origin as church-guilds or
associations of craftsmen united by their cult of a particular saint.
As living and working organisations, of course, they were trade
unions, very narrowly protectionist and exclusive, jealous and
watchful against any encroachment, and tenacious of their
privileges. Aristocracy and democracy are alike slow to surrender
monopoly, and sometimes the reluctance has reason on its side.

Scottish Burgh Records 271

There is room here for only one quotation to show how, in
1582, the booksellers, who were freemen of Edinburgh, petitioned
for an order of council against an outsider. They showed,
with all the eloquence of indignant ratepayers, 'that Thomas
Vautrollier prenter beand ane straynger and unfrieman hes thir
dyvers yeiris bygane be him selff and his servandis . . . toppitt 1
and said vithin this burgh all maner of buikis in smallis2 and
lykwayes bindis the sam contrair to the priveleges of the burgh
and to our intollerabill damnage quha hes na uther tred
quhairby we and our famelies are sustenit he bering na charges
whatever and we watcheing wairding and extenting at all tymes.'
The application was successful ; the Council ordained the
agent of the famous French printer * to desist and ceiss fra
all topping and selling in smallis of ony maner of buikis in
tymes coming.'

Among other persons convicted of breaking the burgess oath,
there appears in 1608 Master Robert Steven, who had taken
up a Grammar School in the Canongate to the detriment of
the High School belonging to the burgh. This distinguished
offender (not unknown to these columns, see S.H.R. ii. 253),
survived his fine, 'ane unlaw of 100 lib,' until 1618 when he
died in Canongate, * Maister of ye grammer scoill thair.' It
is impossible to close this notice of Sir James Marwick's treatise
on Edinburgh guilds without marking it as a touching last link
of his official association with that city, and of his zeal for its
municipal history.

The next volume now to be noticed is a second and com-
plementary part of the first volume issued by the Scottish Burgh
Records Society. Professor Cosmo Innes edited the ancient laws
and customs of the burghs from 1124 until 1424. A volume in
continuation was begun, but was left unfinished when Professor
Innes died in 1874. Never resumed by Sir James Marwick, it
has fallen to Mr. Renwick to complete. He has adopted the
plan of the original volume, and the work consists of a series of
excerpts from the record edition of the Acts of the Parliaments
of Scotland.

These excerpts embrace the entire statutes applicable to Scottish
burghs from 1424 until 1707. Almost all of them are long
ago repealed, but the few still in force — rari nantes indeed — are

1 Toppit, broken bulk, so as to retail.

2 In smalls, by retail, as opposed to 'in gross.'

272 Geo. Neilson

marked with an asterisk. The pitiful survivals thus seen in
conjunction with the extinct enactments are truly creatures of
a vanished world, although, as Mr. Renwick says, they ' illustrate
the pleasing feature of continuity which pervades the worthier
institutions of our country.' Prefixed to the text is a very
short sketch of the legislative system as applied to burghs and
trade privilege and the beginnings of foreign trade.

One suggestive remark is made which touches the historical
origin of the collective jurisdiction of the Four Burghs, famous as
a distinctive organisation of early Scotland. Referring to this
Court, which in early times was held at Haddington, and is
regarded as the kernel from which was developed the Convention
of Royal Burghs, Mr. Renwick states it as ' not improbable that
the original organisation was partly of a military type, just
as the early individual "burg" was a stronghold before it was
transformed into a market town.' Hence, by analogy from
the free hanse of burghs north of the Grampians, the
Hanseatic league of the Baltic cities, and the far older Anglo-
Danish confederation of the Five Boroughs in the Danelagh,
he hazards the conjecture * that ancient Northumbria when the
Forth was its northern boundary established its four chief
strongholds in the north on a somewhat similar basis.' It is
a speculation, to a great extent prehistoric, but as a conjecture
will deserve consideration among the other clues to the enigma of
the burghs. With this important suggestion, which is obviously
influenced by recent discussions of the * garrison theory,' the
Scottish Burgh Records Society in one of its last volumes may be
said to return to the problem indicated as the motive of the first
volume forty-two years ago, viz. ' to shew the origin of our
Burghs and of the Burghal spirit.' And no one will dispute the
learning and industry, fidelity and success with which the latest
editor has interpreted the aims of the founders of the Society
as expressed by Cosmo Innes — not only to show those origins,
but to follow and depict the effect of the institutions of the
burghs ' on the morals and character, the taste, feeling and mode
of life, of their people.'

The Peebles Extracts are in more senses than one a tribute to
the little border burgh. Not only does the volume show the
Society returning to it, as a typical community, for the purpose
of completing the earlier selection of extracts for 1165-1710,
published in 1872. In the introduction Sir William Chambers
said that that book * mainly owed its existence ' to Mr. Renwick.

Scottish Burgh Records 273

The new volume shows Mr. Renwick himself, after at least five
other books devoted to his native county and to Peebles itself,
returning to it once more.

'Ille terrarum mihi praeter omnes
Angulus ridet.'

No wonder that the townsmen some years ago made an honorary
freeman of one who has rendered such filial service and such
faithful chronicle. The stones, the very dust of Peebles, are dear
to him, and with patriotic zest he crushes the myth that it
was reserved for David II., and not David I., to make Peebles a
full and free royal burgh. When Mr. Renwick wants to settle a
doubt — and he has settled more than almost any historical
student in Great Britain — he has a way of resorting to an
appendix for his pieces of justification. So, here, he prints
(fortified by facsimile) the charter of 1367 which George
Chalmers and William Chambers both vainly misread ; and no
man will doubt any more, for David II. 's charter itself disproves
the proposition which disparaged the certainty of Peebles having
enjoyed the highest burghal antiquity. Another charter adds an
unusual historical curiosity to the appendix ; it is the grant
of the barony of Manor in Peeblesshire to Sir William Inglis
in 1395, 'in reward of his notable deed namely the slaying
of Thomas of Struthire an English knight whom he slew on the
Borders in a duel in an action of infamy.'

The town council records, which form the substance of the
volume, cover the period from the Restoration to the Revolution,
and nearly reach the '15. Naturally the preface glances retro-
spectively at some of the burghal institutions touched upon.
Peebles was still an essentially agricultural community, and
the rights and regulations of common pasture, the mills, and the
bridge were themes of town politics of great practical importance.
Thus they claim attention in the preface along with such matters
as the mode of electing provost and council, the incorporating
of sundry crafts, and the friction between the schoolmaster
who taught Latin and the school doctor who taught English.
Peebles had a 'lord provost' in 1555; it spoke of its fair
as existing ' thes mony aiges bygane ' ; it accepted incorpora-
tion with the Commonwealth, and even a charter from the Lord
Protector without ever naming Cromwell in its minutes ; it
swore allegiance with enthusiasm to the returned Charles II.
in 1 66 1 ; it prayed for William and Mary according to the

274 Geo. Neilson

Act in 1689 ; and its records betray no extravagant feeling over
the Union of 1707.

Internal affairs are the staple of the extracts. The days of
border history were past ; the burgh appears to have made its
last combatant stand in the abortive attempt to keep out
Cromwell's army after the battle of Dunbar. The central
interest is domestic. For Mr. Renwick, we suspect, Peebles
holds undimmed its reputation for pleasure ; its alleged sepul-
chral quiet he seems determined to disprove. At least there
is no denying that the annals silently achieve that end, for brisk
episodes abound. A ' witch's get ' is a term of abuse ; the
education authority of the period imprisoning folk for ' not putting
their children to the school ' are by a violent maid-servant declared
to be nothing ' but mensworne rascalls' ; neighbours quarrelled
with each other with the formula c I defye the, divell.' Once
at least they went still further and defied the provost, for a
burgess in 1667 upbraided that dignitary by ' saying he spoke not
majestick lyke' — an observation too heinous to atone for by a
less fine than 40 merks plus incarceration ' during the provest's
pleasur.' On occasion a provost's wife could be riotous against a
burgess * pulling doun of his bonet after he had called her a
brazen faced loun,' but much graver was the case when the
provost himself was assaulted by ' dinging of his hatt and
piriweig.' For this, James Sheill not only went to prison but
paid a fine, and had his burgess ticket riven ' publictly att the
cross ' in token of forfeiture of all his burgess privileges.

The liveliness of Peebles otherwise is evinced by the frequency
of morning drinks, and pints and gallons of ale to workmen,
as e.g. ' quhen they lifted up the stipell bell to set her rycht,'
by such freaks as that of the roisterer * ringing the fray bell,'
by the c tua new lockis that was brokin be the mos-truperis upon
the portis,' and by the grim necessities of a town's hangman,
the scourging of thieves, the pillorying of resetters ' with ane
paper on their heidis,' and the searching out of stranger unde-
sirables. So far from dull was Peebles that the town officer
himself got 'notoriously drunk' one night whereby the prisoners
in the ' thieves' hole ' put fire to the doors and nearly set the
town a-blaze. Death itself was only an excuse for prolonging
such festivities, and in 1697 the council had to repress the
abuses at wakes frequented by crowds, ' playing at cards, and
drinking excessively, and swearing.' Pleasure even at Peebles
had to be kept within reasonable bounds.

Scottish Burgh Records 275

One suggestive episode alluded to in the preface is a search
for the town's papers after Cromwell's men had made free with
the place. A small payment was made ' for two candle to
look the writtes in the steiple efter the Inglesmen had spoyled
the same.' Not small is the honour of Peebles that it has never
wanted for lights of its own to see to its muniments. Scottish
burghs in general have scarcely less signally profited by the
unwearying service and unique learning of an honorary burgess
of Peebles as their chief archivist and historiographer.

GEO. NEILSON.

Chronicle of Lanercost1

ON the following day, to wit, on the festival of S. Margaret,
Virgin and Martyr,2 he received at Carlisle Castle fealty
and homage from nearly all the chief men of England, who were
assembled there for the expedition to be made into
5°7' Scotland, and was proclaimed king. Thus Edward
the younger succeeded the elder, but in the same manner as
Rehoboam succeeded Solomon, which his career and fate were to
prove. Meanwhile, the obsequies and funeral rites of his father
were being arranged, and when these were ready, the corpse
was taken to Carlisle, and so on to the south, liberal offerings
in money and in wax being made for it in those churches by
which it passed, most of all in those where it rested for the
night. The new king, and Antony Bek, Bishop of Durham
(who had previously been ordained by the Pope Patriarch of
Jerusalem), accompanied the corpse through several days' journey,
together with the nobles of England and a great multitude of
Secular and Regular clergy ; and afterwards the king returned
to Carlisle to arrange for the expedition into Scotland ; and
thither came to him first Patrick, Earl of Dunbar, and made
homage and fealty to him.

On the vigil of S. Peter ad Vincula 3 he moved his army into
Scotland in order to receive homage and fealty from the Scots,
as he had forewarned them, having summoned by his letters all
the chief men of the country to appear before him at Dumfries,
there to render him the service due. Afterwards he divided
his army into three columns to search for the oft-mentioned
Robert ; but, this time, as formerly, he was not to be found, so
they returned empty-handed to England after certain guardians
had been appointed in Scotland.*

1See Scottish Historical Review, vi. 13, 174, 281, 383 ; vii. 56, 160, 271, 377 ;
viii. 22, 159.

2 2oth July. 3 3 ist July.

4 Aymer de Valence was appointed guardian of Scotland on 28th August, but
he was superseded on 8th September by John de Bretagne, Earl of Richmond.

Chronicle of Lanercost 277

Meanwhile there came in great pomp to the king a certain
knight of Gascony, Piers de Gaveston by name, whom my lord,
the elder Edward, had exiled from the realm of England, and
in accordance with the unanimous advice of parliament had caused
solemnly to swear that he would never re-enter England ; this
because of the improper familiarity which my lord Edward the
younger entertained with him, speaking of him openly as his
brother. To this fellow, coming by the new king's command to
join him while he was still in Scotland, the king gave the noble
earldom of Cornwall and the Isle of Man, and preferred him
in affection to all the other nobles of the country, whether of his
own kin or otherwise. When this was done, the whole of
England murmured against the king, and was indignant against
the aforesaid Piers. Moreover, the new king apprehended
Walter de Langton, my lord Bishop of Chester, a man as worthy
as any in the realm, who had been treasurer to his [Edward's]
father until his death, and imprisoned him in Wallingford
Castle.1 He did this, as was alleged, because the said bishop
had been prime mover in advising that the aforesaid Piers
should be exiled from the realm in the time of his [Edward's]
father. He also caused many other leading men, who had been
with his father, to be dismissed from their offices, and viler and
worse men to be appointed. Howbeit, he had some cause for
punishing the bishop, because, as was said, he found in his
possession more of the treasure which he had collected under
his [Edward's] father than was in his father's treasury after his
death.

Later, after the [anniversary of the] death of S. Michael,2 the
king held his parliament at Northampton, and there confirmed
the gift of the said earldom [of Cornwall], and allowed the
bishop to remain in the aforesaid castle [of Wallingford], which
was at that time the castle of Piers himself; and after the
parliament he went to London with the clergy and people, and
caused his father to be interred at Westminster among the kings ;
for since the day of his death his body had been kept above
ground in the abbey of Walsingham.

While all these affairs were being transacted, Robert Bruce,
with his brother Edward and many of his adherents, was moving

In this may be traced the influence of Piers de Gaveston, no friend to de Valence,
whom, because of his swarthy complexion, he nicknamed 'Joseph the Jew,' a
term of special opprobrium in the fourteenth century.

1 In Berkshire. 2 29th September.

278 Sir Herbert Maxwell, Bart.

through Scotland wherever he liked, in despite of the English
guardians, and chiefly in Galloway, from which district he
took tribute under agreement that it should be left in peace ;
for they were unable to resist him because of the large number
of the people who then adhered to him.

About the same time died Friar William of Gainsborough,
Bishop of Worcester, beyond the sea, when returning from
the court of France, whither he had been sent to arrange the
king's nuptials. He lies at Beauvais among the Minorite Friars.
Almost all his household died there with him, whence it was
believed that they had perished by poison.

Later, about the feast of the chair of S. Peter,1 the King of
England sailed across to France, and with solemnity and great
state married his wife Isabella, daughter of the King of France,
at Boulogne, as had been arranged in the presence of her father
and the leading men of that country, and of many from Eng-
land. He brought her back to England, and was crowned in
London. The people of the country and the leading men
complained loudly at his coronation against the aforesaid Piers,
and unanimously wished that he should be deprived of his
earldom ; but this the king obstinately refused. The murmurs
increased from day to day, and engrossed the lips and ears
of all men, nor was there one who had a good word either for
the king or for Piers. The chief men agreed unanimously
in strongly demanding that Piers should be sent back into exile,
foremost among them being the noble Earl of Lincoln and
the young Earl of Gloucester, whose sister, however, Piers
had received in marriage by the king's gift.2

About Easter3 the king held a parliament, in which it was

unanimously declared that the said Piers should be banished

within fifteen days from all the lands which are under

the King of England's dominion. Howbeit the king,

though he gave verbal assent to this, did not in fact keep faith,

any more than in some other things which he promised, and

Piers remained in England. Wherefore about Pentecost the

earls and barons, with horses and arms and a strong force,

1 22nd February, 1307-8.

2 Margaret de Clare, the king's niece, being daughter of his elder sister, Joan of
Acre. The marriage took place on 1st November, 1307, although Walsingham
says it was after Gaveston had been appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, l6th
June, 1308.

3 1 4th April.

Chronicle of Lanercost 279

came to Northampton, where the king was staying at that time
with the said Piers, and there at length it was arranged by
force and fear that he should immediately be sent back into exile,
in the manner aforesaid, and the Pope's excommunication was
procured upon him in the event of his ever after re-entering
England. But while it was decreed that he should embark at
Dover and have an annuity for life of ^200 sterling for himself and
j£ioo for his wife, if she were willing to leave the country
with him, the king secretly caused him to sail to Ireland with
his wife, furnishing him with letters to the effect that, wheresoever
he should go within the lands of the King of England, he should
be received with the glory and honour due to the person of
the king himself. Also he gave him, as was said, such precious
and valuable articles as he could find in his treasury, and also
he gave him many charters sealed with his great seal, but in
blank, whereon Piers might write whatever he chose ; and
accordingly he was received in Ireland with great glory.

In all these proceedings no one in the kingdom supported the
king, except four persons, to wit, my lord Hugh le Despenser,
baron, Sir Nicholas de Segrave, Sir William de Burford, and
Sir William de Enge, against whom the earls and barons rose,
demanding that they should be banished as deceivers of the king
and traitors to the realm, or else that they should be removed
immediately and utterly from the king's presence and council.

About the same time, grievous to relate, the Master of the
Order of Templars, with many brethren of his order, publicly
confessed, as was said, before my lord the King of France and
the clergy and people, that for sixty years and more he and
his brethren had performed mock-worship before a statue of
a certain brother of the Order, and had trodden the image of
the Crucified One under foot, spitting in its face, and that
they had habitually committed sodomy among themselves, and had
perpetrated many other iniquities against the faith. On account
of which all the Templars in France were apprehended and
imprisoned, not undeservedly, and their goods were confiscated,
and the same was done in England, pending what the Pope and
the clergy should decide what should be done with them.

Meanwhile, taking advantage of the dispute between the King
of England and the barons, Edward de Brus, brother of the oft-
mentioned Robert, and Alexander de Lindsey and Robert Boyd
and James de Douglas,1 knights, with their following which they
1 First mention of * the good Sir James,' son of Sir William ' le Hardi.'

280 Sir Herbert Maxwell, Bart.

had from the outer isles of Scotland, invaded the people of
Galloway, disregarding the tribute which they took from them,
and in one day slew many of the gentry of Galloway, and made
nearly all that district subject to them. Those Gallovidians,
however, who could escape came to England to find refuge. But
it was said that the King of England desired, if he could, to
ally himself with Robert de Brus, and to grant him peace
upon such terms as would help him to contend with his own earls
and barons. Howbeit, after the feast of S. Michael l some kind
of peace and agreement was patched up between the King of
England and his people, on condition that the king should do
nothing important without the advice and consent of the Earl of
Lincoln ; but from day to day the king, by gifts and promises,
drew to his side some of the earls and barons.

About the beginning of the following Lent2 an embassy was sent
to the King of England by order of the Pope and at the instance
of the King of France, desiring him to desist from attacking the
Scots, and that he should hold meanwhile only what he possessed
at the preceding feast of S. James the Apostle ; 3 and likewise an
embassy was sent to Robert de Brus desiring him to keep the
peace, and that meanwhile he should enjoy all that he had
acquired at the preceding feast of the same S. James, and no
more ; and that the truce should endure until the festival of
All Saints next to come.4 But Robert and his people restored
nothing to the King of England of that which he had wrongously
usurped between the said feast of S. James and the beginning of
Lent aforesaid ; rather were they continually striving to get more.
In the summer the king held his parliament at Northampton ;
whereat, contrary to the hope of all England, the said Piers de
Gaveston, through privy procurement of the king
beforehand, was confirmed as formerly in the earldom
of Cornwall, with the assent of the earls and barons, on condition
that he should have nothing in the kingdom except the earldom.
For already, before the aforesaid parliament, the sentence of
excommunication pronounced by my lord the Pope against the
said Piers in England had been suspended for ten months, and all
Englishmen were absolved from whatever oath they had taken in
any manner affecting the said Piers ; and meanwhile he received
license to return from Ireland to England, and obtained in
parliament the earldom of Cornwall as before.

1 zpth September. Ji2th February, 1308-9.

3 2 5th July, 1308. 4 ist November.

Chronicle of Lanercost 281

But in the aforesaid parliament there was read a fresh sentence
of excommunication pronounced against Robert de Brus and
against all who should give him aid, counsel, or favour.

Now about the feast of All Saints,1 when the said truce was
due to expire, the King of England sent Sir John de Segrave and
many others with him to keep the march at Berwick; and to
defend the march at Carlisle [he sent] the Earl of Hereford and
Baron Sir Robert de Clifford, Sir John de Cromwell, knight, and
others with them. But a little before the feast of S. Andrew *
they made a truce with the oft-mentioned Robert de Brus, and he
with them, subject to the King of England's consent, until the
twentieth day after Christmas,3 and accordingly Robert de Clifford
went to the king to ascertain his pleasure. On his return, he
agreed to a further truce with the Scots until the first Sunday in
Lent,4 and afterwards the truce was prolonged until summer ; for
the English do not willingly enter Scotland to wage war before
summer, chiefly because earlier in the year they find no food for
their horses.

About the feast of the Assumption 5 the king came to Berwick
with Piers, Earl of Cornwall, and the Earl of Gloucester and the
Earl of Warenne, which town the King of England
had caused to be enclosed with a strong and high wall
and ditch ; but the other earls refused to march with the king by
reason of fresh dispute that had arisen. But he [the king]
advanced with his suite further into Scotland in search for the oft-
mentioned Robert, who fled in his usual manner, not daring to
meet them, wherefore they returned to Berwick.6 So soon as
they had retired, Robert and his people invaded Lothian and
inflicted much damage upon those who were in the king of
England's peace. The king, therefore, pursued them with a
small force, but the Earl of Cornwall remained at Roxburgh with
his people to guard that district, and the Earl of Gloucester
[remained at] Norham.

After the feast of the Purification 7 the king sent the aforesaid
Earl of Cornwall with two hundred men-at-arms to the town
of S. John beyond the Scottish Sea,8 in case Robert de Brus, who

1 ist November. 2 3oth November. s 14-th January, 1309-10.

4 8th March, 1309-10. 5 I5th August.

cThis Fabian strategy was very exasperating to the chronicler, but it was
the means whereby Bruce won and kept his kingdom.

7 2nd February, 1310-11. *l.e. Perth, beyond the Firth of Forth.

282 Sir Herbert Maxwell, Bart.

was then marching towards Galloway, should go beyond the said
sea to collect troops. But the king remained on at Berwick.
The said earl received to peace all beyond the Scottish Sea, as far
as the Mounth. After the beginning of Lent1 the Earls of
Gloucester and Warenne rode through the great Forest of
Selkirk, receiving the foresters and others of the Forest to
peace.

About the same time died the noble Henry, Earl of Lincoln,
who was Guardian of England in the king's absence, in place
of whom the Earl of Gloucester was elected with the king's
consent, and therefore returned from Scotland to England.

In the same year died Antony Bek, Patriarch of Jerusalem and
Bishop of Durham (Patriarch, however, only in name), and was
buried with great solemnity in the cathedral church of Durham,
at the northern corner of the east end ; in which church none had
hitherto been buried save S. Cuthbert.2

To him succeeded Richard of Kelso, a monk of that monastery
[Durham], soon after Easter,3 and was consecrated at
York by the archbishop on the feast of Pentecost.4

In the same year my lord Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, came to
the king in Scotland, to do homage for the earldom of Lincoln
which had come to him through his wife after the death of the
aforesaid earl. But, forasmuch as the king was in Berwick, the
earl was advised not to go before him outside the realm to render
homage, neither would the king come across the river to him ;
wherefore there was much apprehension of civil war in England,
because the earl, having four other earldoms besides that of
Lincoln, threatened to return immediately with one hundred
knights whom he had brought with him (without taking account
of foot-soldiers besides), and to enter upon the lands of the said
earldom whereof he had offered homage to the king, who had
declined to receive it. But by God's influence the king followed
wiser counsel, crossed the water of Tweed, and came to the earl
at Haggerston, about four miles from Berwick, where they
saluted each other amicably and exchanged frequent kisses.
Although hitherto they had been much at discord because of
Piers de Gaveston, yet [that person] came thither with the king ;

1 24th February, 1310-11.

2 Considering the effusive eulogy or scathing criticism passed by the chronicler
upon other deceased dignitaries of the Church, it is strange that he should have
nothing to say about the character of this most redoubtable prelate.

8 nth April. 4 30th May.

Chronicle of Lanercost 283

but the earl would neither kiss him, nor even salute him, whereat
Piers was offended beyond measure.

In the same year the Templars of England were tried upon the
aforesaid crimes with which they were charged by inquisitors sent
by my lord the Pope, all of which they denied at York, but three,
of them pled guilty to them all in London.

Forasmuch as the king, two years before, had granted in a
certain parliament, and confirmed by establishing it under his
great seal, that he would submit to the authority of certain
persons, earls and bishops,1 partly for councillors (for he was not
very wise in his acts, though he may have spoken rationally enough),
and likewise partly for the better governance of his house and
household, and that the term of two years should be given them
for dealing with these matters and deliberating, which time had
now elapsed, therefore the Guardian of England and the nobles of
the land sent forward envoys to the king in Scotland about the
feast of S. Laurence,2 humbly beseeching that it would please him
to come to London and hear in parliament what they had
ordained for his honour and the welfare of his realm. Wherefore
the king, unwillingly enough, went to London, where all the
great men of the realm were assembled, and in that parliament
the said ordainers announced publicly what they had ordained,
and these were approved by the judgment of all as being very
expedient for the king and realm, and specially so for the com-
munity and the people. Among these [ordinances] it was decreed
now, as it had been frequently before, that Piers de Gaveston
should depart from the soil of England within fifteen days after
the feast of S. Michael the Archangel,3 never to return, nor
should he thereafter be styled nor be an earl, nor be admitted
to any country which might be under the king's dominion; and
sentence of excommunication was solemnly pronounced by the
Archbishop of Canterbury upon all who should receive, defend,
or entertain him in England after the aforesaid fixed limit of
time. He himself, confident that he had been confirmed for life
in his earldom, albeit he was an alien and had been preferred to
so great dignity solely by the king's favour, had now grown

1 These Lord Ordainers were the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishops of
London, Salisbury, Chichester, Norwich, S. David's and LlandafF; the Earls
of Gloucester, Lancaster, Lincoln, Hereford, Pembroke, Richmond, Warwick
and Arundel ; the Barons Hugh de Vere, William le Mareschal, Robert Fitz
Roger, Hugh Courtenay, William Martin, and John de Grey.

2 xoth August. 3 1 3th October.

284 Sir Herbert Maxwell, Bart.

so insolent as to despise all the nobles of the land ; among whom
he called the Earl of Warwick (a man of equal wisdom and
integrity) ' the Black Dog of Arden.' When this was reported
to the earl, he is said to have replied with calmness : ' If he call
me a dog, be sure that I will bite him so soon as I shall perceive
my opportunity.'

But let us have done with him [Piers] till another time and
return to Robert de Brus to see what he has been about mean-
while. The said Robert, then, taking note that the king and all
the nobles of the realm were in such distant parts, and in such
discord about the said accursed individual [Piers], having collected
a large army invaded England by the Solway on Thursday before
the feast of the Assumption of the Glorious Virgin,1 and burnt all
the land of the Lord of Gillesland and the town of Haltwhistle
and a great part of Tynedale, and after eight days returned into
Scotland, taking with him a very large booty in cattle. But he
had killed few men besides those who offered resistance.

About the feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin,2 Robert
returned with an army into England, directing his march towards
Northumberland, and, passing by Harbottle and Holystone and
Redesdale, he burnt the district about Corbridge, destroying
everything ; also he caused more men to be killed than on the
former occasion. And so he turned into the valleys of North and
South Tyne, laying waste those parts which he had previously
spared, and returned into Scotland after fifteen days ; nor could the
wardens whom the King of England had stationed on the marches
oppose so great a force of Scots as he brought with him. How-
beit, like the Scots, they destroyed all the goods in the land, with
this exception, that they neither burnt houses nor killed men.

Meanwhile the Northumbrians, still dreading lest Robert should
return, sent envoys to him to negotiate a temporary truce, and
they agreed with him that they would pay two thousand pounds
for an exceedingly short truce — to wit, until the Purification of the
Glorious Virgin.3 Also those of the county of Dunbar, next to
Berwick, in Scotland, who were still in the King of England's
peace, were very heavily taxed for a truce until the said date.

In all these aforesaid campaigns the Scots were so divided
among themselves that sometimes the father was on the Scottish
side and the son on the English, and vice versa ; also one brother
might be with the Scots and another with the English ; yea, even
the same individual be first with one party and then with the

1 1 2th August 2 8th September. 8 2nd Feb., 1311-12.

Chronicle of Lanercost 285

other. But all those who were with the English were merely
feigning, either because it was the stronger party, or in order to
save the lands they possessed in England ; for their hearts were
always with their own people, although their persons might not
be so.

From the feast of S. Michael1 until the feast of S. John
Lateran,2 Pope Clement held a council at Vienne3 with the
cardinals and three patriarchs and one hundred and thirty arch-
bishops and bishops, and abolished the Order of Templars so that
it should no longer be considered an Order. Also he caused
many new constitutions to be enacted there, which were compiled
in seven books in the time of his successor, John XXII.

Now let us return to Piers. That oft-mentioned Piers de
Gaveston left England and went to Flanders within the time
appointed him, to wit, within fifteen days after the feast of
S. Michael.4 But whereas in Flanders he met with a reception far
from favourable (through the agency of the King of France, who
cordially detested him because, as was said, the King of England,
having married his daughter, loved her indifferently because of
the aforesaid Piers), to his own undoing he returned to England,
but clandestinely, through fear of the earls and barons ; and the
king received him and took him with him to York, where they
plundered the town and country, because they had not where-
withal to pay their expenses. For the earls and barons had
ordained, and enforced execution thereof after the return of the
said Piers, that the king, who would not agree with his lieges in
anything, should not receive from his exchequer so much as a
half-penny or a farthing.5 The king, then, fearing lest the earls
and barons should come upon him there, took Piers to Scar-
borough with him ; but he who was then warden of the castle6
refused to allow, on any account, the king to enter accompanied
by Piers, wherefore the king turned aside with him to Newcastle,
and there, as at York, they plundered the town and country.
When Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, heard this, being most hostile
to the said Piers, he marched secretly and suddenly through the
wooded parts of England, avoiding the high roads, about the feast
of the Invention of the Holy Cross.7

1 29th September, 1311. 2 6th May, 1312. 3InDauphiny.

4 1 2th October. 5 Obolum nee quadrantem.

'Henry de Percy, First Lord Percy of Alnwick, 1272-1315. 7 3rd May.

(To be continued,}

Reviews of Books

THE CONSTITUTION AND FINANCE OF ENGLISH, SCOTTISH AND IRISH
JOINT-STOCK COMPANIES TO 1720. By William Robert Scott, M.A.,
D.Phil., Litt.D. Volume II., COMPANIES FOR FOREIGN TRADE,
COLONIZATION, FISHING AND MINING. Pp. x, 504. Royal 8vo.
Cambridge: University Press. 1910. 155. nett.

THIS is a very valuable contribution to economic history, and it is impos-
sible in a short space to give an idea of the scope and thoroughness of
research of Dr. Scott's book.

The sixteenth century is a period of great interest in economic history,
and one of its most important phenomena is the increase of capital and of
opportunities for its employment. From the middle of the century onwards
an ever increasing amount was invested in joint-stock companies. The
formation and growth of these companies were influenced by different con-
ditions from those of the present day. Dr. Scott finds that these conditions
fall into two classes, those which affected all the companies, and those
which only affected special trades or industries. The first class of conditions
is to be treated of in Volume I.,1 which is an account of the ' general
development of the joint-stock system * brought * into relation with the
chief social, political, industrial and commercial tendencies which influenced
it.' Thus an account will be given of the uses of capital in modern times.
Volume II. contains accounts of companies formed for trading, colonizing,
fishing and mining. The history of some, by no means all, of these com-
panies has been written. But, as Dr. Scott says, attention has been chiefly
given heretofore to the work and results of the companies, rather than to
their constitution and their financial organization and methods. This latter
side is fully and ably dealt with in Dr. Scott's book. Dr. Scott begins
with the earliest companies formed, those for foreign trade, such as the six
companies which were successively formed to trade with Africa, the first
expedition sailing in 1553 ; the company for trade to Russia, which obtained
a charter in 1555 ; the 'Adventurers to the North- West for the Discovery
of a North-West Passage,' which accomplished nothing, and lost over
^30,000 ; the Levant Company ; and the Hudson Bay Company.

The East India Company, founded in 1600, is the best known and the
most important. Almost from the beginning it had great difficulties to face
at home as well as abroad. It was attacked by the bullionists and the

1 For reasons connected with the printing Volume II. is published before
Volume I.

Early Joint-Stock Companies 287

clothiers, who declared that it exported bullion and imported goods which
competed with the woollen manufacture. About 1670 the Levant Com-
pany, jealous of the success of the East India trade, the interlopers, and the
opponents of the whole system of joint-stock companies joined in the attack.
In 1 68 1 efforts were made to promote a rival joint-stock company, but the
favour of the crown was secured for the old company, chiefly by an annual
New Year's gift of 10,000 guineas, until the Revolution. After 1689 the
opponents of the company attacked it with renewed vigour both in Parlia-
ment and on the stock-market, and at last were established in 1698 as the
New Company. It then appeared necessary that some arrangement for
amalgamation should be made. Accordingly it was decided, in 1702, that
the companies should be united in 1709, the trade in the meantime to be
carried on by a joint committee of the New and Old Companies. The
financial adjustments were very complicated. The Old Company held more
dead stock than the New, but it had a large debt due on bond. In addition,
a two million loan had been raised, of which each company held a different
proportion. Even after the amalgamation there were still difficulties to be
faced by the United East India Company — the control of the officials in
the east, for instance, $2000 was spent on liquor at Bencoolen in six
months, while the stores were left to rot ; an alarm about interlopers from
Ostend, with a commission from the Emperor (surely not the ' Emperor of
Austria' in 1716); and the crisis of 1720. Dr. Scott's history of the
finance and constitution of this company and its long struggle with the
interlopers is most valuable.

The failure of the Scottish East India Company (the Darien Company)
was largely due to the opposition of the English Company, though in any
case the Scots, even had they been able to raise their proposed capital of
£600,000, would have had a hard struggle with the long-established East
India and African companies with their joint capital of £1,372,540. The
stock of the English Company fell 46 per cent, after the development of
Paterson's scheme. Parliament was urged to interfere, both by the East
India Company and also, though Dr. Scott does not mention it, by the
plantation officials, afraid of Scottish settlement in America and infringe-
ment of the Navigation Acts. The House of Commons decided to seize
the papers of the subscribers and to impeach the leading members, and the
company was really ruined before the subscription in Scotland was begun.
£400,000 was subscribed in Scotland, of which £170,000 was nominally
paid up, though only about £150,000 was actually paid. This was lost,
and debts of £14,809 i8s. I id. were incurred by 1707, when the assets were
£1,654 l Is- Ofd. Some of the stock was sold at 10 in 1706, the purchasers
making a profit of about 600 per cent, when payment was made from the
Equivalent.

Some of the colonizing companies had very important results, including
the founding of settlements in Virginia, Massachusetts, other parts of New
England, and the Bermudas. An unsuccessful Scottish attempt was made
to settle Nova Scotia by Sir William Alexander (1621-1633) in which the
title of baronet was offered to those who ventured 3000 marks and sent out
six colonists.

288 W. R. Scott

The success of the Dutch in fishing off the British coasts inspired the
foundation of the * Society of the Fishery of Great Britain and Ireland '
(1632-40). But the Scots were not at all anxious to co-operate, the capital
raised was insufficient, and was almost entirely lost.

Nearly all the companies, for whatever purpose they were formed, were
incorporated by charter from the crown, seldom in Tudor and Stewart
periods confirmed by Parliament, although the Russia Company had its
privileges confirmed by Act of Parliament in 1566. The East India Com-
pany for long endeavoured to get authorization from Parliament, and
pointed to the Scots act constituting the Darien company as evidence in
favour of its demand.

The charter of the Russia Company, 1555, is one of the earliest examples.
It incorporates certain persons named as * one bodie and perpetuall fellow-
ship and communaltie' endued with perpetual succession and a common
seal, capable of holding bonds and of sueing and being sued ; with a
governor and provision for the fellowship electing some of the * most sad,
discreete and honest persons ' of the fellowship as assistants, who had con-
siderable power. Most of the later charters were much on these lines,
sometimes providing for an annual meeting of shareholders, or specifying
the number of shares, twenty-four in the Society of the Mines Royal ; or
the voting qualification, which in the 1661 charter of the East India Com-
pany was fixed at ^500.

A very important feature in the charters of the trading companies was
the extent and character of the monopoly granted to them. The East
India Company was granted in 1600 the * whole entire and only trade and
traffic ' in all places from the Cape of Good Hope to the Straits of Magellan;
the Royal African Company in 1672 was to have the whole trade from
Sallee to the Cape. They were also often authorized to punish interlopers,
who forfeited their ships and cargoes.

The difficulties of the Russia Company with interlopers are interesting,
illustrating the complications which arose in commercial matters before
the complete union of England and Scotland. James I., by letters patent
under the great seal of Scotland, incorporated Sir James Cunningham and
other adventurers as a Scottish East India and Greenland Company.
Cunningham, to the alarm of the Russia Company, began to fit out a
whaling expedition, but an arrangement was come to by which the charter
was to be recalled and Cunningham compensated. In 1626 Charles L, as
king of Scotland, gave a license for whaling to Edwards, or Uduard as the
Scottish records call him, and his partners. After some controversy the
Company was ordered to admit them as members, but in 1634 the Green-
land Adventurers were again in difficulties with interlopers, one of whom
had got hold of Edwards' license.

The financial history of the companies is given with great fulness
and clearness by Dr. Scott. In the trading companies there was not
always a permanent joint-stock at the early stages, but members could
subscribe for one voyage only or for a group of voyages. In the early
years of the East India Company the voyages were organized on the
system of terminable stocks. By 1613 they had sent out twelve voyages,

Early Joint-Stock Companies 289

for each of which there was a separate subscription, except that one and
two, and three and five were inter-related. In that year a subscription
was made on the basis that there should be four voyages with the capital
adventured, this was called the First Joint-Stock. In 1617 a Second
Joint-Stock was formed, but it was found advisable to purchase the assets
of the First, and similarly the Third bought the * remains ' of the Persian
Voyages, which had been sent out separately. In 1657 it was arranged
that the Fourth Joint-Stock and the United Joint-Stock should be wound
up, and gradually the system of a permanent capital was adopted.

The methods of finance were not always strictly business-like. The
Royal African Company, chartered in 1672, was involved by 1712 in
difficulties 'without precedent or parallel.' In 1702 dividends had been
paid out of capital to induce the shareholders to pay an assessment on their
stock, and by 1712 the price had fallen to 2j^ for j£ioo stock. When
trade was depressed on account of the Dutch war, two dividends amount-
ing to 50 per cent, were declared by the East India Company because the
capital could not be employed, and also, and probably more important
though not stated by the committee, because they feared the crown might
compel them to make large loans if they were known to have large
resources.

The East India Company occasionally paid dividends in commodities,
such as pepper or calico, in its earlier years. This was not appreciated by
those who were not merchants, and in 1629 it was declared 'in order
to give contentment to the gentry ' that the distribution should be made in
money.

Occasionally in the companies for plantation and for reclaiming the land
dividends were given in land. Such a dividend was promised to every
adventurer of a ^12 IDS. share in the first Virginia Company, who did not
emigrate himself. The land division in Bermudas in 1617 gave 25 acres
per share (an interesting map is given shewing the principle of the division).
The shareholders in the company for draining the Great Level were
to receive 95,000 acres ; and the Irish society, financed by a rate levied on
the London Livery companies, divided a great part of Ulster amongst the
shareholders.

In some of the colonizing companies there were subordinate joint-stocks
founded for particular purposes. Such were the Magazine in the Virginia
Company for bringing the tobacco to market ; a joint-stock of j£8oo for
transporting * 100 Maids to Virginia to be made Wives'; and ^1000 for
sending out shipwrights.

Money was occasionally raised by lottery, as by the Virginia Company
in 1612, the Royal Fishery Company in 1661, the Company of Mine
Adventurers in 1699. The last was managed by Sir Humphrey
Mackworth, one of the earliest company promoters. He, or his agents,
excelled in writing pamphlets, precursors of the modern prospectus, describ-
ing the prospects of the company in most glowing terms, * the most artistic
touch ' being the * plea that, from the superfluity of profits, the happy
shareholder should vote considerable sums for charitable purposes.' The
proceeds of 2000 shares, amounting to j£io,ooo, were used by Mackworth

T

290 Arthur C. Champneys

chiefly in providing treats at the lotteries and in paying his own personal
expenses.

The remaining volumes of this work will be most welcome, and we
look forward with special interest to Volume I., which will contain the
generalizations on the facts which Dr. Scott has collected from many
sources and handled with great ability.

THEODORA KEITH.

IRISH ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE, WITH SOME NOTICE OF SIMILAR
OR RELATED WORK IN ENGLAND, SCOTLAND, AND ELSEWHERE. By
Arthur C. Champneys, M.A. Pp. xxxiii, 258. With numerous
Illustrations. Demy 4to. London : G. Bell and Sons. 1910.
315. 6d. nett.

THE volume before us makes no attempt at a survey of the whole field of
Irish Architecture, secular and military as well as sacred, such as was
accomplished for Scotland in the works of Drs. MacGibbon and Ross, but
it represents a much more systematic study of the building art in Ireland
than has been previously essayed. Mr. Champneys does not indeed ignore
the structures of the pagan period, for he emphasizes the fact that it is from
these dry-stone monuments that the primitive cells and oratories of Early
Christian times were originally evolved, and he describes and illustrates in
his first chapter some of the more important of the stone forts of the
western seaboard. On the other side the term ' ecclesiastical architecture '
is liberally extended to cover a treatment of such work as that of the carved
crosses, which is not in the strict sense structural. The book is illustrated
throughout by numerous process reproductions of photographs, for the most
part from the author's own negatives, but, as a serious set-off against this,
there is an absolute dearth of ground-plans, the want of which will be felt
especially by the professional reader. The illustrations would also have
been strengthened by some drawings of details and ornaments of special
interest, as well as by some analytical diagrams and sections of vaults. The
untouched photograph, on which reliance is almost exclusively placed, is
not an ideal form of illustration where details are in question, as the photo-
graph seems to accentuate disturbing patches of discolouration, caused by
lichen and similar accidents. It would also have conduced to the comfort
of the reader if references to the illustrations had been introduced into the
text, according to a practically universal and most salutary custom.

These defects may easily be remedied in a subsequent issue of what will
remain probably for a long time the standard work on its subject. It is a
thoroughly sound, well-thought-out production, and exhibits the archi-
tecture of Ireland in its connections with that of other parts of the British
Isles, while at the same time doing full justice to those aspects of it in
which it seems purely Hibernian. On certain questions of dating and of
origin the author takes the reasonable view which has been practically
established for the last two decades. It is now sufficiently recognized that,
while the more primitive structures are of uncertain date, those in which

Irish Ecclesiastical Architecture 291

the highly ornamental style called Irish Romanesque makes itself apparent
cannot be earlier than the twelfth century. This needs to be said, because
in a recent Italian work on medieval architecture, which in its English dress
is likely to be widely read, the author seems to assume that the too early
dating for which Petrie is in part responsible has remained an article of
faith to this day. This is by no means the case, and the sane chronology
of buildings like those at Glendalough, on which Mr. Champneys has set
his seal, has been well understood for some time past It is true that there
are examples of Irish Romanesque, such as the chancel arch at St. Caimin's,
Iniscealtra, and the western door of St. Flannan's, Killaloe, in which no
details occur that can be chronologically fixed ; but in the majority of cases
the chevron, an unmistakable symptom of twelfth century date, is much in
evidence, and this is quite sufficient to fix the chronology of the style.

In the matter of the older structures that are devoid of ornamental
details, dating must be largely a matter of conjecture. These are of special
interest to Scottish students, as they consist in the beehive huts, stone-roofed
oratories, and other dry-stone structures that occur in the Celtic parts of
Scotland as well as in the western isle. The technique of these is so
obviously derived from that of the pagan tombs and stone forts of the pre-
Christian centuries that in themselves they might be of any date within the
limits of the ecclesiastical history of the island. Mr. Champneys seems
inclined to show unnecessary scepticism as to their high antiquity, but this
is a matter on which there must be considerable latitude of opinion. On
one minor point connected with these interesting structures his opinion
may be contested. The projection of the side walls upon the western front
of many early Irish churches he appears to treat as decorative features,
calling them ' antae,' * pilasters terminating the side walls,' and, when they
occur in later work, ' buttresses.' Surely the example on St. Macdara's
Island, off Connemara, which he mentions on p. 38, shows that the feature
is constructive. Here it is not only the wall, but the corbelled stone roof
into which the upright side wall passes off, that expresses itself in this
fashion on the ends of the building, and this seems to proclaim the con-
structive independence of the combined wall and roof. Where there is no
stone roof the ' antae ' are to be regarded as merely survivals.

The later chapters of the volume, on the different periods of Irish
Gothic, are full of interesting matter. The Cistercian influence is excel-
lently handled, and the connection with England, illustrated in the work
at Christ Church, Dublin, is made clear, while at the same time the
vernacular elements in the later Irish Gothic are amply vindicated. Ire-
land never became, any more than Scotland, an architectural province of
England, and, though owing much to the English lancet and decorated
styles, Erin did not go on to adopt the Perpendicular forms, but like Scot-
land pursued an independent course. In the fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries Irish architecture exhibits specially indigenous features.

G. BALDWIN BROWN.

292 Pelham : Essays

ESSAYS BY HENRY FRANCIS PELHAM, Late President of Trinity College,
Oxford, and Camden Professor of Ancient History. Collected and
edited by F. Haverfield. Pp. xxiii, 328. With Map. 8vo. Oxford:
Clarendon Press. 1911. ios. 6d. nett.

THOSE who knew the late Professor Pelham will feel grateful to his
successor in the Camden Chair for the admirably balanced and finely
phrased appreciation which serves as introduction to this volume of collected
papers. Those who did not, will learn from it something of the singular
combination of qualities that enabled their possessor to exercise such an
influence in so many departments of University life at Oxford. Pelham
was a man of wide sympathies and of quite unusual charm and sincerity of
manner. He was a brilliant teacher, and a most capable administrator.
But he was also, perhaps above everything else, a scholar with a genuine
love of learning, a broad outlook over the field of knowledge, and an easy
mastery of the multitudinous mass of detail belonging to his own special
subject. He published only one book — his brief but altogether excellent
Outlines of Roman History. That his output was not greater was doubtless
mainly due to the fact that when he was in the prime of his vigour he was
threatened with blindness. A successful operation averted the calamity,
but for years afterwards he could not use his eyes with ordinary freedom.
The interruption to his work came just as he was setting his hand in earnest
to what he hoped up to the very last to make the great achievement of his
life, a large * History of the Roman Empire.' Only three or four chapters
had been written when his sight began to fail. Whether, even under the
most favourable circumstances, the ' History ' would ever have been com-
pleted, is perhaps open to doubt. As Professor Haverfield points out in his
biographical sketch, the task was one of immense and of rapidly increasing
difficulty ; Mommsen himself had turned aside from it deliberately. But
the present volume at all events shows clearly that very few were so well
equipped for attempting it as Pelham.

The longest and most important of the papers the book contains deals
with the domestic policy of Augustus. Next to it we should rank the
description of the Roman Frontier in Southern Germany. The former, a
hitherto unpublished chapter of the c History,' is well calculated to serve
as a specimen of the writer's quality. It is a model of lucid exposition and
of sound and sane reasoning. There is no English discussion of the subject
at once so full and so informing. We doubt whether any so judicious has
appeared upon the Continent. The paper on the German Limes was
originally printed in the Transactions of the Royal Historical Society. It is
a really first-rate summary of the first fourteen years' work of the Limes-
Commission. As discovery progresses, it will tend to fall out of date, but it is
not likely to lose its value for many years to come. Professor Haverfield has
supplied a capital map, which enables the printed text to be easily followed.

The majority of the other essays are strictly and severely technical — the
stern stuff of which history must be made if it is to be not merely readable,
but reliable. As such they will command the attention of specialists. The
remainder are of more general interest, and among these we should give the

Bussell : The Roman Empire 293

palm to the Quarterly Review article upon the ' Early Roman Emperors.'
The least satisfactory is that upon 'Discoveries at Rome, 1870-89.'
Excavation has been so active during the last two decades that editorial
notes of correction and supplement are frequently called for here, and yet
even here the careful reader will find a good deal that deserves attention.

Of the volume as a whole it may safely be predicted that it will long
remain entitled to an honoured place on the shelves of students of Roman
history. GEORGE MACDONALD.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE : Essays on the Constitutional History from the
Accession of Domitian (81 A.D.) to the retirement of Nicephorus III.
(1081 A.D.). By F. W. Bussell. 2 volumes. Vol. I. xiv, 402, Vol. II.
xxiii, 521. Demy 8vo. London: Longmans, Green & Co. 1910.
28s. nett.

IN spite of a few well-known writers, Byzantine History has not received
the attention from English scholars which it deserves. Gibbon, notwith-
standing his rather Olympian altitude, entered closely into the subject and did
much for its elucidation : and Finlay, with a more sympathetic treatment,
carried research a good deal further. But Finlay 's history was completed
in 1 86 1, and since then Byzantine studies have somewhat languished,
although Professor Bury, in the intervals of other work, has done much to
carry them on. Dr. Bussell's important and vigorous contribution will, it
is to be hoped, now definitely turn a portion of English, and especially
Oxford Scholarship towards a field which has been so largely left to the
Germans and the French. Byzantine studies in general have received a
great loss through the death of the lamented Professor Krumbacher of
Munich : but the present work shows that the interest which he did so
much to arouse will not be allowed to die.

Dr. Bussell modestly describes his work as Essays on the Constitutional
History, but in reality it consists of two stout volumes, and they are con-
cerned as much with political philosophy, and in that perhaps lies their
most important element. Or perhaps it would be more correct to say that
Constitutional History and Political Philosophy must always go together —
that the one is meaningless without the other. And so Dr. Bussell has
brilliantly combined the two. His historical narrative is illuminated by
philosophical insight. He has the faculty of looking at a period as a whole.
In everything, he combines minute knowledge with the ability to take a
general view. Thus every page is enlivened with remarks and conclusions
drawn both from the matter in hand, and from knowledge of events in
other ages, drawn from widely different sources. In a vigorous introduction
the conclusions and methods of the work are outlined.

Dr. Bussell's book is, then, on Byzantine history, as interpreted through
political philosophy. In plan, the work falls into two parts. The first
volume follows up the course of the Empire's history, chronologically from
the accession of Domitian in 81 to the retirement of Nicephorus III. in
1 08 1, or rather to the defeat of Romanus IV. at Manzikert in 1071 ; then,

294 Bussell : The Roman Empire

and not till then, in Dr. Bussell's view, the Roman Empire passed away,
and the accession of the Comneni opened a * new dynasty and a new age.'
The second volume goes over the same ground, not chronologically as a
narrative, but in the form of essays. This plan ensures great fulness of
treatment, and a truth once discovered is not allowed to be lost sight of.

The style throughout is dramatic, and we watch with interest the swift
course of the centuries till the flood of Orientalism transforms the whole
tissue of a once Western Empire. In each decade the facts are clearly
marked ; and for every generalisation, dates and proper names are produced;
while illustrations from all sources, from the novels of Disraeli to the
writings of Tsin-Hwang-Ti, are given with an equal light touch and
appositeness.

With the general public, the book will be read for its graphic style, and
its vigorous discussion of the ever-pressing problems of bureaucracy, caste,
heredity, and representation. To the student, it will mean much more.
It is a book he must work at, thoroughly to understand it. It is well equipped
with introductions, chronological tables of reigns, notes, appendix, a com-
plete index, and even an analysis of all the facts and arguments. Only
maps are required to make the equipment complete, for occasionally the
reader is troubled to keep the shifting outlines of frontiers in his head. As
a rule references are not given at the foot of the pages, but are reserved for
notes at the end of a chapter ; and striking sentences are quoted in the
original Greek, with great effect. On almost every occasion the page or
section of the authority is given, although in the case of Psellus, Dr. Bussell
hints at many important passages, but reserves a more detailed treatment for
another work, which he half promises, and which we hope he will carry
out. R. B. MOWAT.

THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND IN TWELVE VOLUMES. Edited
by William Hunt, D.Litt., and Reginald L. Poole, M.A. Volume
VI. From the Accession of Edward VI. to the Death of Elizabeth,
1547-1603. By A. F. Pollard, M.A. Pp. xxv, 524. Demy 8vo.
London : Longmans, Green & Co. 1910. 75. 6d. nett.

THE publication of Professor Pollard's volume completes this political
history of England from the earliest times till the end of Queen Victoria's
reign. This volume is, like the others, in itself a separate and complete
book, with its own bibliographical and genealogical appendices, maps, and
index. It presents to view three reigns, those of Edward VI., Mary
Tudor and Elizabeth. Its chief interests are its accounts of the settled
form which the Reformation took in England, of the character and of the
policy of Elizabeth, and of the entry of Scotland upon the stage of modern
history.

It opens with the administration of the Protectorate which followed
the death of Henry VIII. in 1547, when Edward VI. was only nine years
old, while the English constitution still required, as its mainspring, an
active personal ruler. It tells the story of the fresh attempt on Scotland,

Pollard : Political History of England 295

in preparing for which Henry had spent the last months of his life ; of
the seizure of Edinburgh and the papist abbeys ; and of Pinkie, the last
and bloodiest of the battles between the independent kingdoms. It shows
us the optimist Somerset, a unique dictator, trying to rule with a ' gentle
hand,' and seeming to think he could reverse the despotic methods of the
Tudors, almost dispense with axe and gallows, and ignore the heresy laws
of the late king. It tells of the enduring acts of the Protectorate and the
short reign of the boy king, Edward VI. j of the adoption of the Book of
Common Prayer, with the ' black rubric ' which John Knox contrived to
get interpolated in it; of the legalisation of inclosures at the discretion
of lords of the manor ; and of the sparing (not the founding, as their name
erroneously suggests) of the so-called King Edward VI.'s Grammar Schools.
We read again the pathetic tale of Lady Jane Grey, the almost perfect type
of intellectual graces, of modesty, sincerity, and saint-like innocence, the
blameless instrument of her father-in-law's desperate plot ; and of the half-
Spanish Mary, whom Mr. Pollard calls, without undue flattery, the most
honest of Tudor rulers, and who yet brings a blight on national faith and
confidence. He describes her as a pitiful woman by nature, freely pardon-
ing convicted traitors, but burning Protestant widows, striving in vain to
satisfy by such burnt-offerings the cravings of a mind diseased in a dis-
ordered frame, forsaken by her husband and estranged from her people.
Sterility, he says, was the conclusive note of her reign. Under Mary the
Church was restored. But there was no spiritual fervour. There was an
intellectual paralysis. Even theology was neglected.

Mr. Pollard has drawn every character in clear, bold strokes, and he is
as faithful with Elizabeth as with the rest. He shows her self-reliant,
steadfast, absolute, of true English tenacity, and thanking God for giving
her 'a heart which never yet feared foreign or home enemy' ; more than
a Macchiavelli in deceit, and one of the most accomplished liars who ever
practised diplomacy. When she wills the end, she wills the means. She
secretly attacks while publicly professing friendship. Her servants' lives
and fame are hers to spend or throw away, and she is disloyal to her
agents whenever it suits her to repudiate them. These are the methods
of her time, but she has an asset in diplomacy that is all her own. Her
courtships played a leading part in the subtle work of her foreign policy.
She dangled the bait, that cost her neither expense nor risk, before greedy
Spaniard, Austrian, Scot, Swede, and Frenchman in turn, if she could
thus for the moment attract an ally to, or divert an enemy from, England.
Each was beguiled with hopes which she alone knew to be vain. For
she had a secret which she never revealed, and which her ministers did
not dare to whisper, though they suspected it. Mr. Pollard accepts the
evidence that she knew that, for physical causes, she could never have a
child, and marriage was as repulsive to her as imprisonment.

With unfailing skill he has set forth the devious ways, and the extra-
ordinary success of her policy; her gradual steering of England from
alliance with Spain to alliance with France and with Scotland; her
manoeuvreing of Mary Stuart from being the representative of France to
being the client of Spain ; her completion of the recovery by the crown,

296 Pollard : Political History of England

from the barons and the knights of the shire, of the crown's powers of
initiative in legislation, a step towards the transference of these powers to
ministers responsible to parliament.

Mr. Pollard's account of the relations between church and state and
church and people is of the greatest interest and value. Again and again
he points out and illustrates the sordid character of the English Reforma-
tion, and shows how very little religion, in the true sense, had to do with
the matter, and what continuous factors were honest patriotism and dis-
honest greed. Only a minority cared about a moral and intellectual
amendment. Northumberland's friends in 1552 desired a simpler ritual,
but at least one of their motives was an appetite for church goods, plate
and metal. Even in the Catholic reaction under Mary, the English would
not admit Pope or legate, except on the condition that the holders of the
distributed abbey lands should not be disturbed. Mr. Pollard points out
that English political instincts were more strongly developed than religious
feelings or moral sense, and respectable people thought it scarcely decent
to indulge conscience in defiance of the law. The faith was a matter for
the church to settle, and the clergy were responsible.

These chapters exhibit throughout a judgment illuminating and con-
vincing, the ease and freedom of complete mastery of the subject, and a
rhetorical perfection and happiness of expression very admirable and
engaging.

The volume re-tells some of the most romantic and perennially
interesting incidents in modern history, and some of the most perennially
and fiercely debated. Mr. Pollard has given most of them a more
accurate setting, and all of them a fresh interest.

ANDREW MARSHALL.

THE DAWN OF MODERN ENGLAND ; BEING A HISTORY OF THE
REFORMATION IN ENGLAND, 1509-1525. By Carlos B. Lumsden.
Pp- 3°3- 8vo. London : Longmans, Green & Co. 1910. 95. nett.

MR. LUMSDEN'S book is of a highly polemical character, and fairly bristles
with statements, of which the general trend can merely be indicated but
scarcely discussed within the limits of a brief review.

The book is the first of * many volumes ' in which the author hopes to
bring his history down to the death of Charles I. ; but, although it is thus
the first of a series and as such necessarily incomplete in some respects, still
the proportions are oddly arranged ; almost half of it is given up to the
purely political history of the time, whereas the section on the German
Reformation is strangely scant considering the part it played in influencing
the course of affairs in England ; also the conditions of the Church in
England in the early sixteenth century are practically untouched, and
popular religious opinion and feeling either in Germany or England is
left severely alone.

These latter omissions may possibly be rectified in a later volume, but
in regard to time one would expect them to appear in the present

Lumsden : Dawn of Modern England 297

The author speaks from the standpoint, not merely of a Roman Catholic,
but of a determined apologist of medieval ethics, modes of thought, and
ecclesiastical standards. The philosophy of the Middle Ages is 'the
greatest the world has ever seen ' ; the individualism which was the
supreme and all-pervading tendency of the Renaissance is responsible
for a few possible benefits and very many evils in succeeding centuries.
Mr. Lumsden is perhaps a little obsessed by this theory ; as, for instance,
when he claims that the keynote of monasticism was the annihilation
of the individual in the community. Might it not be suggested that
it was in certain respects rather the last expression of a spiritual indi-
vidualism ? The Reformation accomplished no good end ; it set free
the evil passions and greed of mankind from all ecclesiastical restraint,
with disastrous results; Luther was a histrionic genius with a shrewd
capacity for playing upon the cupidity of his countrymen in the fight
with Rome, which was thus dominated entirely by economic interests.
The Reformers were first of all practical men and 'in good works they
more particularly resented the power that this gave the Church over
money.' Justification by Faith as expounded by Luther encouraged a
mere expression of belief, and discouraged all ' charity, humility, and love
of one's neighbour.'

These assumptions, as well as many others equally disputable, are
put forward by Mr. Lumsden as self-evident statements of fact. He
does not deny the degradation of the Roman Curia in the sixteenth
century ; and he rightly joins other modern historians in destroying the old
popular view of the Bible in pre-Reformation times as a forbidden book
wholly inaccessible in the vernacular tongues. MARY LOVE.

THE REGISTER OF THE PRIVY COUNCIL OF SCOTLAND. Third Series, Vol.
III. A.D. 1669-1672. Edited by P. Hume Brown, M.A., LL.D.,
Historiographer Royal. P. xlviii, 851. 8vo. H.M. General Register
House, Edinburgh. 1910. 155. nett.

ANOTHER massive instalment is added to the published records by this
volume, which begins just a few months previous to the Earl of Lauderdale's
appointment in September, 1669, as the King's Commissioner in Scotland,
and the exponent of an eventful ecclesiastical policy. To suppress the
religious recusants who refused to accept the re-establishment of episcopacy at
the Restoration was the main concern of the Council during the three years
covered by the volume, and these records tell the story of Lauderdale's
effort, first by conciliation and afterwards by repressive measures of increas-
ing stringency, to suppress conventicles, protect ' indulged ' ministers, put
down the unlicensed ' outed ' ministry, and generally maintain the episcopal
settlement in the teeth of the Scottish people.

Burnet, who in 1673 was addressing Lauderdale in warm compliment
not only as a 'Master in all learning,' but for his 'judgement so well
ballanced,' wrote differently after the rupture with his patron. 'Duke
Lauderdale's way,' he said in his History, 'was to govern by fits and to pass

298 Register of Privy Council

from hot to cold ones always in extremes.' This severe estimate is not quite
borne out by the proceedings which Professor Hume Brown summarises in
his introduction, and which, passing through all stages from indulgence to
persecution, are characterised by a steady persistence in the attempt to quiet
the country. The bait of indulgence had not the expected effect. Con-
venticles were insuppressible in spite of incessant prosecution.

Equally numerous were the prosecutions for cases of assault and robbery —
the law's name for the 'rabbling' of unpopular conforming ministers. Endea-
vours to find any workable compromise were essentially unsuccessful : the
indulgence of 1669, not by any means abortive, was equally condemned by
the covenanters and by the episcopalian synod of Glasgow ; its repetition with
modifications in 1672 gave no hope of efficient result. Over all, however,
there was little persuasion ; force was the remedy invoked behind all the
indulgences, although the more violent manifestations of persecution were
reserved for a later administration. Lauderdale was to discover that his
concessions were no effective bribe and that compromise was impossible.
And there were other than covenanter malcontents. Roman Catholicism
had its vehement votaries, and even the Quakers persisted like the Catholics
in following their own creed despite the Acts of Parliament and Council.

Trade subjects were rising in importance, and, above all, trade with
England and Ireland. The Scots were eager to get Scots goods into
England and to keep Irish horses, cattle, and victual out of Scotland. The
protection of native salt, the promoting of a Fishing Company, the
regulation of printing and bookselling privileges, the improvement of roads,
the suppression of disorders in Edinburgh, Rutherglen, and Linlithgow, and
in the Orkney Islands, and the continuance (with considerably abated zeal)
of witchcraft proceedings are among the themes singled out for treatment in
the introduction. Monopolies were continually being defied. A typical
instance may be given. The Company and Society of Fishing in 1670 had
obtained a prohibition against any but themselves from exporting herring or
white fish, but Glasgow ships named the Peter, the David, the Henkar
Voyage, the Mareon, and the Mary, and a Saltcoats ship named the Provi-
dence, were all convicted at one time in 1672 of carrying cargoes of herring.
The provost of Glasgow (Wm. Anderson) and other merchants on the
Clyde were fined 100 merles per last of herring exported.

Among miscellaneous papers forming an appendix there is an interesting
letter in 1669 to the 4 old proveist ' of Glasgow, George Porterfield, then
resident with his wife in Amsterdam. He held office in 1652. The letter
from John Martin makes interesting reference to the current troubles, and
declares — *O if the olde proveist might ere he dy be invited home to rule in
that poor citie . . . that wolde be a day of refreshing.' Another letter to
' Mistresse Porterfield ' in 1672 is from John Brown, who dates from Middle-
burgh, and is evidently Brown of Wamphray, then minister of the Scots
church at Rotterdam.

In previous notices of these registers ithe remark has been repeated that
the romantic and adventurous spirit of the older chroniclers survives unim-
paired in these later records.

As an instance there may be taken the narrative of the riot at the St.

Frere : Visitation Articles 299

James's fair in the burgh of Forfar in 1671 contained in cross-charges by
and against William Gray of Hayston, claiming the office of constabulary.
He and the magistrates both claimed the right to proclaim the fair. The
latter proclaimed it ' both at the mercat crose of the said burgh and upon
the know called the Horseman's Know in the Muir of Forfar.' An
attempt to disperse the assembly led to an armed conflict of bodies of horse
and foot, with halberds, swords, muskets, guns, and pistols, after which
Gray went from the * muir in a most hostill triumphing and insulting
manner ' to proclaim the fair over again in his own name. Interesting
points of law and history were involved. On the one hand, the Gray
family had held the hereditary offices of sheriff and constable with the castle
hill attached as a pertinent of the constabulary, and, on the other, the burgh
had had its whole burghal privileges confirmed by charter in 1669, includ-
ing the ' weekly mercat and yeerly fairs.' Gray prevailed ; Provost, bailies,
councillors, and others of the burgh party were fined ; and on the counter-
charge Gray and his company, including the sheriff-clerk of Forfar, were
assoilzied. Among the commissions of fire and sword granted in 1672
against outlawed Highlandmen is one against M'Leod of Assynt, and a host
of allied M'Leods, M'Neills, and other clansmen, whose offences included
that of * intercomoning with the Neilsones alias the Slichten Abrach.'

Shipping incidents are many, such as the adventure of the Golden Salmond
of Glasgow, partly owned by Provost Anderson, setting out on a maiden
voyage to Cadiz and captured * by a Turkish man of warr near Salzie ' —
which recalls the Sallee rover of Robinson Crusoe. Other Glasgow ships
mentioned are the Merchant, the Glasgow, the Rainbow, the David, and
the Dolphin. A staple export carried consisted of vagabonds and * egyptians '
under the then prevalent sentences of transportation to the American
plantations. Specific destinations of such cargoes are the Barbados, the
* Caribbie Islands,' and Virginia.

But enough has been said to illustrate the wealth of interest there is in
these varied annals. Too little has been said in thanks to the editor for his
introductory analysis, which lucidly and with well-chosen illustrations
points out the prominent features of that time of ecclesiastical coercion,
of expanding commerce, and of steady decrease in domestic violence.

GEO. NEILSON.

VISITATION ARTICLES AND INJUNCTIONS OF THE PERIOD OF THE REFORMA-
TION. 3 vols. Edited by Walter Howard Frere, D.D. Alcuin Club
Collections XIV., XV., XVI. London : Longmans, Green & Co.
1910.

IT is probable that this work will be read only by those who already are
acquainted with the story of the